Pelican 7060 -- Engadget

pelican 7060 posts

LAPD's blinding new flashlights too light to beat suspects

by Evan Blass, posted Apr 2nd 2007 at 12:35PM

It's kind of sad when one of the main features being touted by the LAPD about its new flashlights is their inability to provide suspects with a good beating, but after that very public 2004 incident in which a motorist took 11 blows from a heavy 'torch,' we guess the new model's light weight is indeed an important selling point. The 10,000 Pelican 7060's that officers will soon begin carrying -- specifically designed for the department of Rodney King fame -- sport two separate power switches, a no-slip 'grenade grip,' cooling fins on the shaft, and 130 lumen LEDs that are said to be capable of momentarily blinding a non-compliant individual. Sounds like good news for criminals and the falsely-accused, but maybe not so great for that cop in the direct path of a raging meth-head; in those situations, we'd take the cold hard ~~steel~~ aluminum of our four D battery MagLite over a wimpy Pelican any day of the week.

[Via The New Zealand Herald]