California officer shoots police dog after it bites his hand

[happyslug]

17. Actually a billy club would have been a better option

For years, the preferred "Weapon" of police was the Billy Club or Baton. You could knock knives and pistols out of people's hands and it encourage the officer to be more physically aggressive (i.e. charge TO a criminal, instead of taking a stand and shooting the criminal), but at the same time minimize what harm the officer could do to the criminal (Through you could do a lot of damage to someone with a baton, see the Rodney King Video for an example of this).

The main reason baton use declined in police circles has to do with Automobiles. The old wooden batons were a pain in the neck when kept on a belt as you entered and exited a police car (as the US Army became more mechanized you saw a similar dropping of the bi-fold M1943/M1945/M 1951 entrenching tool for the less effective when it came to actually digging M 1967 tri-fold entrenching tool for the same reason i.e. troops hated the longer bi-fold when it came to getting into and out of vehicles).

In the case of Police batons the problem of getting in and out of a Automobile was addressed with the new expandable metal billy clubs, but they just do not have the appearance of the old wooden billy clubs (and that is in many ways visibility of the club is more important then usability of the of the club).

Just compare the old wooden billy club with the newer expandable clubs:



The side arm baton is popular



Here is an expanded expandable baton:



https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/shopping?q=tbn:ANd9GcSrxgvbMcy3btUAX4kbM72yTVxvum34Tg_F2Qfj5us_wF-0eQo&usqp=CAE

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baton_(law_enforcement)

BBC report from 1998 about British police replacing their traditional straight batons with "American" Side arm batons, the British police are generally UNARMED but always carried a baton:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/244530.stm

Wikipedia reported the use of the side arm baton was short lived, replaced by expandable batons for the same reason many American Police Forces went to the expandable baton, getting in and out of automobiles:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_uniforms_and_equipment_in_the_United_Kingdom

Prior to 1964 the most common police "vehicle" was the bicycle, but after the 1964 police Act, Automobiles became the vehicle of choice, replacing not only the remaining bicycles but most foot policemen (Thus the old wooden baton became more and more a problem, such wooden batons are NOT a problem on a bicycle, you have no back rest and the seat does NOT interfere with things carried on a belt, that is NOT true of Automobiles or other motorized vehicles with the possible exceptions of motorcycles).

Thus even in Britain the old wooden baton is disappearing and with it the tradition that it would be the police officers first choice of weapons.