by Mike Patrick

Created on: December 14, 2009   Last Updated: December 16, 2009

Twenty-one feet.

To a police officer approaching a potential suspect, everyone is armed. “Innocent until proven guilty,” only applies to courtrooms. The police officer who approaches everyone thinking that they are unarmed and friendly doesn’t survive very long. There is evil in the world and a perpetrator’s appearance is no indication of their intentions.

For that reason, every time a police officer gets close to an unknown subject, he is thinking they’re armed; and he’s thinking about twenty-one feet.

Twenty-one feet is the distance his training tells him an assailant can move during the time it takes for an officer to recognize and respond to a hostile attack. It doesn’t matter if the attack is with a club, a knife or hands and fists.

If those twenty-one feet are traversed before the officer can bring a weapon into play, he will be fighting for his life with his bare hands.

Police are trained to fight with their hands, but from the start it’s an unfair fight. If the officer wins, he is to use the minimum amount of force necessary and immediately cease all aggression when the subject is under control.

The suspect is under no such restraints. He will use all the force and weapons within his conrol and will not stop until the officer is unconscious or dead.

That’s why police officers never fight fair. Whatever the subject uses, the officer will move at least one step higher in the force hierarchy. If the subject appears to have nothing but his hands, and there is really no way to know for sure, the officer will use his less than lethal weapons of mace, baton or taser.

If the subject has a knife or a club, the officer will use the taser or move up to a lethal weapon. If the subject has a gun, then it’s a fair fight with the officer probably having the edge due to training.

Now, let’s objectively go over the options. When the officer first sees that perceived threat, he/she has several options if outside those twenty-one feet. Mace is one of them, but the same instructor who drilled that twenty-one feet danger area into his head also repeated over and over that while mace causes a burning sensation on exposed skin and eyes, it doesn’t stop anyone.

They can tough it out. They can still advance, they can still fight, and they can still slash with a knife. The aftereffects of mace will dissipate in about fifteen minutes or even sooner if washed off.

The second option is the Asp: a collapsible baton.

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