From Idea to Invention

• NCJ Number: 211849
• Date Published: 2001
• Length: 4 pages
• Grant Number(s): 96-MU_MU-K011
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Report (Technical)

Annotation

This paper describes several technological inventions developed within the fields of law enforcement and corrections, resulting from ideas and enhancing law enforcement and correctional officers' ability to safely restrain an offender or inmate.

Abstract

Most advances in technology originate from an idea that someone has or has had. This paper briefly describes four such technological inventions in the fields of law enforcement and corrections in the area of securing or restraining a suspect or offender/inmate. CUFFCLIP is a handcuff-carrying device that resembles a heavy-duty spring clip that quickly attaches to an officer's duty belt and can hold up to 13 pairs of metal handcuffs. This would eliminate the use of plastic flex-type cuffs and afford the officer greater protection. The IMMOBILIZER, a prisoner restraint system, is a metal pivotal restraint harness that is heavily padded and attached to a patrol vehicle above the backseat. Affording a number of different less-than-lethal defensive features, the Life Stick is a combination nightstick and shell-firing device with an internal firing mechanism with the ability to fire a beanbag, a rubber projectile, teargas, or pepper spray. Carry-on, invented by a retired female U.S. Navy commander, is an ointment applied to the upper lip, directly under the nose, to block the receptors that detect the repugnant smell of decomposing or burnt flesh.