Tactical Tip: Green laser pointers for patrol supervisors (et al)
We got this one from a salty—and very squared away—older cop we trained with, a Watch Commander from a very busy Florida municipality where things have the potential to get pretty rough. He and all of his line supervisors as well as some of his officers carry a small green laser in the pockets of their uniform shirt (and I want to say the tactical guys keep one Velcroed to the outside of their heavy armor). They’ve used them several different ways and found them to be an indispensable piece of kit. He’s used the laser to deploy containment officers (“…need an officer with a rifle over behind that tree…no, [laser] that tree…”) during an armed and barricaded situation and to set up a perimeter on an armed perp search. “The laser is a good attention getter from a distance when stealth is required,” he told me, at a class up in Kansas City a month or so ago. “Think of the laser as a hand and arm signal you can use from a distance. You can mark a location from five miles away. We’ve used the laser to signal helos, to point out to the dive team where a swimmer or suspect went down, to point out the landing on a stairwell where a suspect was last seen moving…"
It makes sense. Say there’s an air unit overhead that calls in a heat source. You signal with the laser so the helo can give you a bearing a distance to what they see on the FLIR, or they tell you “He’s in the tree fifty meters out,” and you say, “Which tree?” You hit one with the laser and the bird can vector it in (further west, about 25 meters further up, etc.). It’s not much more of an encumbrance than an ink pen and you can use it by day or night.
If you’re going to carry one, you should definitely carry green instead of red. The human eye sees further into green wavelengths then red ones, maybe 3 or 4 times as far. When your eyes have adjusted to low light conditions, your sensitivity to red degrades even more.I don’t know the physics of it, I’m a plastic warrior not a scientist. That’s the reason trackers use green light at night instead of red (remind me and I’ll do a bit on that later). Anyway, the point is you’ll be able to see the green laser whether you’re working evening or midnight shift. Keep in mind rain and dust, etc. is still going to hamper things regardless of the local illum. Obviously in a tactical situation you're going to want to keep in mind that a laser points both ways, but as along as you don't wave it around like a Jedi light saber long enough for someone to get a sight picture on you you'll prob'ly be okay.
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