Category: Handcuffs

Here is an interesting article that is basically discussing a new type of handcuffs that are a major improvement over the standard handcuff. Who knew that the handcuffs today are based on a design well over 100 years old?

How well do your handcuffs really work?

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Introducing the GOTCHA Restraint

Phase 1: Introduction

When a law enforcement or correctional officer places a pair of handcuffs on a subject, they normally assume that the subject is controlled or at least secured. We have a certain level of expectation that the subject who is in the handcuffs will not be able to escape. Yet time and time again we hear of the tragedy of a subject who has picked their handcuffs and killed the officers who were transporting them. What exactly are handcuffs supposed to do? What assumptions do we have of them?

Here is an interesting article from Africa, where the police have been made to explain their use of handcuffs. Apparently people are upset because women charged with the same crime as men often are not handcuffed, while men always are.

Interesting side note, I've been arrested and taken to jail before. Nothing more serious than a traffic offense, yet I was forced to be handcuffed. Had I see a woman arrested for the same traffic offense and not be handcuffed, I'd be quite pissed too. I wish our society would get the balls to question more police tactics and procedures, we could get some of our rights back that Bush took away.

Police explain the use of handcuffs

BAME PIET Staff Writer 4/13/2006 2:28:59 PM (GMT +2)

Botswana Police Spokesperson Superintendent Solomon Mantswe has said that police use handcuffs and leg irons on violent suspects. He was speaking in an interview after members of the public recently raised concern that female suspects were not handcuffed, even if they were suspects of the same offence as their male counterparts.

Police say the man was arrested and charged with three counts of assault, two of the alleged assaults were against police officers.

The Bell Street neighbourhood is well known to police as a hangout for prostitutes and drug dealers.

Pamela Connolly has lived in this area for seven years, and chairs a committee that deals with the security of her neighbourhood.

She defends the police.

"They have a very tough job, a very, very tough job. And they have responded with care and concern to the issues that we bring to them on a regular basis," Connolly says. An Ottawa man who says he saw police officers beating up a handcuffed man has filed an official complaint.

Eric McGinn says he couldn't sleep after witnessing the beating on Monday night.

"I was pretty certain he'd broken his jaw," McGinn says.

As he drove along Gladstone Avenue near Bell Street, McGinn says, he saw an Ottawa police officer smash a man in the face with his fist, even though the man was already in handcuffs.

"To assault a person who is defenseless must take a guy who is a real hero, eh! Like, this is disgusting," he says.

McGinn says he couldn't sleep the night of the incident. Today, he filed an official complaint with police.

Woman charged with assault, attempted escape after Saturday arrest

Monday, March 20, 2006

A woman assaulted a Frederick police officer early Saturday morning after she escaped from handcuffs in the back of the patrol car.

Lisa L. Maley, 33, of 5336 Bhines Road in Frederick, was charged with second-degree assault, attempted escape, attempted carjacking, reckless endangerment, possession of controlled dangerous substance and paraphernalia, driving under the influence and driving with a revoked license.

Posted on Thu, Mar. 02, 2006 FBI seeks help in catching bank robber known as `Lock Key Bandit'

WELLS FARGO OFFERING $100,000 REWARD IN CASE Mercury News

He is known to the FBI as the ``Lock Key Bandit,'' a gunman who has hit banks from San Jose to Santa Cruz by mysteriously slipping by locked bank doors to pull off his heists.

Now federal agents are seeking the public's help in capturing him, and Wells Fargo is offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.

The Lock Key Bandit last struck on Oct. 4, 2003, at a Wells Fargo branch, 360 N. Capitol Ave. in San Jose.

Before the bank opened, two workers were inside filling ATM machines with cash when they were surprised by a man with a semi-automatic handgun. He forced them into a vault and put flexible plastic handcuffs on them. He left with an undisclosed amount of money.

As agents investigated that case, they determined the same man was responsible for two similar robberies at Wells Fargo branches -- a Dec. 19, 1997, heist at 150 N. Santa Cruz Ave. in Los Gatos, and another on July 20, 2002, at 74 River St. in Santa Cruz.

In each case, the robber was inside locked banks before the doors were opened. It is unclear how he has been able to enter the building, agents said.

In every robbery, the suspect has used a semi-automatic pistol and a duffel bag to stash cash; used the same type of handcuffs; demanded entry to the vaults to get money; and demonstrated a deep understanding of banking procedures.

The FBI describe the suspect as a white man in his mid-40s, six feet tall, 175 to 185 pounds. He has a medium build and graying hair at the temples.

Because he's used a gun in the robberies, the public should consider the suspect armed and dangerous.

Agents ask anyone with information about the ``Locked Key Bandit'' call agents at (415) 553-7400. All calls are treated confidentially.