Sometime back, I was reading a book on either kubotan or yawara sticks for police use.
The author was stressing the fact that while searching a suspect the weapon could be kept in hand ready for instant use should the suspect make an aggressive move.
It occurred to me that this author had actually missed a trick here.
A suspect’s pockets can be full of all sorts of nasty things including infected needles, so initially examining the interior with a stick-like object rather than your tender flesh isn’t a bad idea.
It wouldn’t be a bad idea if one end of that stick mounted a small magnet.
That train of thought reminded me that some models of pocket torch have a magnet on their base, allowing them to be stuck onto metal surfaces such as car bodywork.
A small torch is quite a handy thing to have while searching a suspect too.
My original idea evolved into a small torch with a magnet mounted at one end.
It needed to be robust enough to be used as a striking weapon like a kongo. It needed to be slender and long enough that it could be used like a wand to search suspects. Thin but long would also facilitate many of the kubotan lock and restraint techniques.
Unlike many of the available compact flashlights, it would need a switch or button so that it could easily switched on and off without changing grip.
Given that many cops use flashlights in an “icepick”-style grip there might be virtue in giving the design dual controls.
The obvious place to carry such a tool is a breast or sleeve pocket, so the light should probably have penclip too.
A relatively new innovation in tactical flashlights are crenelated bezels.
The first examples of these I saw looked rather like cookie-cutters and I was a little dubious since they seemed designed to increase the severity of damage without contributing much to the self-defence capabilities of the flashlight. I could see some immoral lawyer claiming it caused cruel and unnecessary damage.
There now seem to be a wider variety of more sensible designs. I like the three-pronged example above. If the flashlight is placed bezel down it would cast quite a bit of light over the surface that it was standing on, which might be useful.