Handcuff Comparison

all right today we are talking about handcuffs probably one of the questions that I get most on the channel is about what type of handcuffs to buy whether hinge or chain or a good idea what brands are best and about the overall durability of handcuffs so today we are going to talk about those topics where are you going alright so first we're gonna look at the cuffs that I use most often at work I bought these cuffs when I started off as a security guard when I was 18 years old this R Smith & Wesson Model 100's they're kind of a blued black-ish finish Smith & Wesson handcuffs they're riveted together then the rivets are kind of ground down off the ends you can see what they are now the way Smith & Wesson handcuffs work is there's a bow here and ratcheting teeth right so they go around a person's wrist the clasp in that's pretty much the way all hand cuffs operate they're all pretty similar to each other and what makes Smith & Wesson different from a lot of other brands is the double locking mechanism if you don't know a double locking mechanism is what keeps the bow from collapsing in further when somebody sits into the car or when you're putting cuffs on are leading them around by the cuffs so to double-lock Smith & Wesson handcuffs you put them on the person and then you slide a little bar over that's inside this little slot you see that inside there and then inside here there's no little bar showing anymore because I slid over and then to unlock them you put your key in you turn it one way and you hear a little click then you turn it the other way and the cuffs come over now on Smith & Wesson handcuffs what you have is you have your double locking slots on both sides of the cuffs but the keys to unlock the cuffs are only on one side all right so when you use these you have to load them into your cuff pouch he locks together and into your pouch so when you take them out we're gonna take them out and theoretically have them both key locks up to be able to apply to somebody so on these which direction the keyholes are in is important now this is a plus and a minus which we're going to talk about more with other handcuffs the having keyholes only on one side means if you put keyholes up they're more secure than cuffs with keyholes down or with keyholes on both sides and shame cuffs I prefer because they're easier to work with and they allow you to do more with larger or smaller people because you've got more flexibility and where these cuffs can be out while still restraining the person that same type of cuff the chain cuff model one hundreds of Smith & Wesson makes they also come in a nickel finish here's an example that it's the exact same handcuff I have noticed that these tend to look better longer but they don't necessarily last any longer if you're going to use pair handcuffs at some point they're going to break but they do look pretty and they're easier to find at night if you drop them on the ground so I guess there is something to be said for that from there we're going to talk about hinged cuffs now the advantage of hinge cuffs is they allow you a little more control over the situation you put these on someone and there's only so much movement that they have you could see they're very little lateral movement and hinge cuffs they also have the advantage of if you put these into a pouch let's say you're gonna have them on your off side like for me in order to access them with my left hand I use my hinge cuffs and I would have to do all the gymnastics that I do with chain cuffs in order to get them situated in my hand properly with the keyholes up because they're not going to flip and twist around like you had with the chain cuffs but they operate the same way the same double lock mechanisms on both sides put keyholes over only on one side now there's other varieties and handcuffs that have different double lock mechanisms there are some that have a little peg on the side that you push in to double lock and other ones that have a little lever on the side that you slide or push up or down in order to lock with the lever but they all operate pretty much the same way that you'll talk about a brand that kind of took off in the last few years this is ass brand handcuffs ass brand handcuffs have a lot of user-friendly features that can be very useful for certain purposes but of course you always give something up when you get a lil more user friendliness with a span cuffs you have double lock mechanisms just like on the Smith & Wesson's where you put the peg on your handcuff key in one side and slide over in order to get the handcuffs double locked and they have keyholes but they have keyholes on both sides so you don't have to worry about which side of the cuffs is keyholes up now the upshot with that is it makes it a lot easier to use the downside with that is that they are less secure because if a person knows anything about picking cuffs or they're going to try to pick the cuffs you have given them access to the keyholes no matter which side of the cuffs you put on is this a real thing in real life is this something that happens all the time I tend to think not that the keyhole issue could be more important for someone in a corrections environment or if you're going to use these for temporary detainment you're gonna handcuff someone to a wall like we see in a booking area or for loss prevention that can be a real issue that they're gonna have access to those keyholes when you lis have to leave someone alone but ideally we don't want to be leaving someone alone with handcuffs on them the other issue that I have with a span cuffs and the reason that I don't use them is that any good handcuffing instructor will tell you that you want to have the person completely in control before you apply the cuffs right oh yeah that's great in a class but like so many law enforcement classes that are put on by the companies that make the product and by people that sit at a desk or have sit at a desk for 15 or 20 years and are now trying to tell you how to do your job or someone that works in the middle of nowhere that doesn't ever actually arrest people but now it's coming up with the policy and how handcuffs are gonna work that's not how it works in real life right I can't count the number of times and I've had to fight someone into handcuffs and whether you're working with five guys or you're working alone at some point you were gonna have to wrestle someone in handcuffs it happens to me all the time so the issue with a span cuffs that I have is that if you have to fight someone into cuffs these don't have the same lateral stability in the bow right so because this polymer there's flex to it now could you do that same thing with another setting handcuffs like here's my really old Smith & Wesson cuffs uh you couldn't I guess you'd have to really crank on it to get it over there these can pop out of alignment in fact these are kind of coming out of alignment a little bit I'm gonna have to file that down pretty soon you get a little bit out of alignment but you're never going to be able to get it all the way over like that without almost break-in the handcuff but a scoffs come like this from the factory you can twist it all the way over and not be able to get it in so that's kind of a concern with ASP cuffs the other upshot of these is that they're a little bit lighter for what they are then your Smith & Wesson cuffs I haven't weighed these not really interested in weighing them it only matters how it feels to me anyway so for a set of hinge cuffs the ass cuffs are gonna weigh less and the chain cuffs are gonna weigh a little less than the hinge cuffs overall for the ass cuffs and for these because there's less metal involved so they're a little lighter but they're a little bulkier they're thicker they don't sit in the same pouches you have to have dedicated pouches for the 1/2 cups or you have to get a strap sow Josh uses his he actually lent me the strap with the cuffs cuz he he he knew very well I wasn't going to have the pouch to put these in but that's ASP it's not that I don't like ASP it's just for me I would rather have the extra security and the extra ability to use these as a tool to torque people out of a car or to get people onto the ground and we can talk about handcuffing techniques in further videos but if your issue is weight and convenience then ass might be a good option for you they also tend to be a little more expensive so that's something to think about if we take that to my logical conclusion of things that I would like we're on the ridgid cuffs I borrowed these rigid cuffs from my buddy Chris and these things are made by Hyatt right I think it's Safariland now but same same these essentially work just like a pair of normal handcuffs than a normal Smith & Wesson or hyatt handcuffs the chain or the hinge vote there's a big polymer block in the middle here that is extremely solid that keeps these things from moving at all now the upshot of this is to use it for a control technique like applying it to somebody's hand and then cranking them out of the car or applying it to somebody's wrist and then cranking them down to the ground those work really really well and for fighting people into cuffs these things are fantastic I mean this gets you absolute control over the one side of the person's arm and then a handle to drag them over and apply to the other hand these things are great for that the down shot to these is that they're really expensive and they're hard to fit onto your uniform I would carry a set of these except that I can't find a basket weave pouch free so they wouldn't the pouch wouldn't match the rest of my stuff so I'd be out of policy for work the guy who uses these actually puts it into a slash pocket into his vest so a big like document pocket his vest he just slides these in there works for him I like my stuff to be a little more secure so I wouldn't use him in that fashion but that's how that's how they work there they're a little more expensive they're a little heavier they give you a lot more control they're a little harder to attach to your equipment but they work just like any other handcuffs there's a key upside so they're pretty secure these are really secure because there's no way you're gonna reach your hand around the cuff to get it in there with your hands in them and this is an example of your push button double lock you can see there's a little peg in that hole you push on to it to double lock the cuffs know everybody always talks about how durable cuffs are they say is this brand more durable than that brand what's your favorite brand yadi yadi yadi ID on it and here's what I tell everybody if you use handcuffs long enough you will end up having to cut them off of a prisoner you use them long enough they're gonna break there are a mechanical device unlike all other mechanical devices they will eventually fail unlike most mechanical devices these are specifically designed and never be taken apart so it's not like you can take it apart and easily oil it or grease it or any of that I've got a whole video about maintaining handcuffs I think you should look at that if you're worried about this issue the key with buying any particular brand of cuffs is to find one that's gonna work for you it's made by a reputable manufacturer now right off the top of my head peerless Smith & Wesson high it all of those are pretty good to go I haven't noticed any difference between the durability of all of them I've had to see all of them cut off of people at one point or another which is a whole lot easier with chain cuffs and it is with these I can tell you that much but at some point they're gonna fail and I want to show because I think people get a little off tilted a but off kilter about whether or not something will break and they get these ideas in their head that a certain brand or a certain type of handcuff or gun or anything is going to be just unlimited durability that you can beat on and do it ever you want on it this is actually a pair of my boss's handcuffs and we had a hell of a time getting these off a guy because he got stuck inside right and we couldn't turn it couldn't get him off and then once we actually got the cuffs to open see if I can't get an open up now once we actually got him open and got him off the guy they had him on and can't get the key out of the thing so we got lucky there we didn't have to cut these off of him that would have been really entertaining but they will break now all hand cuffs will break these are Smith & Wesson these are the ones that I use I love these things I don't see any problem with them but you know this guy's been a cop for about 25 years so these might be 20 25 year old handcuffs and eventually they're gonna fail that's why maintenance is important but as long as you're not using just the cheapy sheet metal looking handcuffs that are from a company with absolutely no name that you've never heard of before you're probably gonna be fine I have actually found use for the cheap no-name handcuffs in the past I've done videos before like my unarmed security duty belt video where I talked about you're working on our security and chances are you're never gonna use handcuffs anyway and when you do the local police are gonna come and pick them up and if they're gonna pick them up and the handcuffs you have then maybe it's best to use the cheapest handcuffs you can possibly get and nowadays I don't really have to do that because I have zip cuffs at my disposal but that's an issue for you maybe you think about having a pair of good cuffs and a pair of crap cuffs but times have moved along and there are techniques for changing out cuffs that are really safe it's just you have to be the one to think about it especially if they're your cuffs on that prisoner I don't ever suggest letting the local PD take your cuffs to the police station unless it's some site of type of exigent emergency and you can't get the cuffs off of the person but most a time if the cuffs are applied properly we should be able to get them off and be able to have you keep them so I suggest Smith & Wesson peerless high it ass can't think any other off the top my head now but they're all pretty much the same durability wise so that's kind of handcuffs that's the long and the short and everything else in between my thoughts on the issue you have other questions concerns or comments put them down in the comments box down below give me a thumbs up don't forget to subscribe and yada yada yada yada yada all the YouTube stuff until next week you guys be safe take care of each other I'd like to thank all the patreon supporters and especially the shift supervisor level patreon supporters that we have listed here your contributions are what allows free field training to continue on and become better thank you

Channel: free field training

Views: 504,731

Rating: 4.828877 out of 5

Keywords: Police, training

Id: uhWD02R8LBw

Length: 13min 58sec (838 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 21 2017