While watching a few episodes of 1950s vintage Dragnet I noticed that when Sgt Joe Friday made an arrest the suspect was never handcuffed. When Sgt Friday had is jacket off in the office no handcuffs were showing on his belt. For a plain clothes officer on the street handcuffs are a basic tool of the trade you would think. Another item not seen was a club or leather sap. This was long before portable radios, mace etc. Must be a few collectors of S&W handcuffs and leather handcuff pouches on the forum.

He probably left them on the craft service table while grabbing his breakfast burrito or maybe he left them in make up.

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You'd be surprised how many real LEO's didn't carry the proper gear, usually because of weight/inconvenience. I was uniformed but always carried two sets of handcuff's and more in the vehicle. I actually had one set fail on a suspect a mile back in the woods after tracking him and many times need two or more sets for multiple offenders or guys would couldn't get there hands together. We always said... "two is one, and one is none"

Vtgw938 I also had multiples of everything in the vehicle, cuffs flashlights etc, believed in Murphys law. Even had extra big S&W cuffs for fat guys with huge wrists and ankles.

I also carried multiple handcuffs on my belt. I had a pair lock up unbeknownst to me while in its carry case. This was during a large disturbance. I also carried a second duty weapon in my squad car.

Once upon a time I was part of a task force staking out a suspect wanted for multiple bank robberies in north east jersey. We surrounded the actor and the FBI Agents moved in for the arrest. They laid hands on the actor and immediately asked if someone had a set of cuffs. I lent them a set of mine. I made sure I got them back too.

Right before I retired, we were man hunting an old gent who was emotionally disturbed, off his meds and took some shots at one of our officers house. A new officer and I located the guy and buckled him up. We had State Police SWAT (TSU here) running the show and they came and picked him up. No sense transferring cuffs on a felony offender so I asked that they make sure I get them back. I never did. P***** me off, I had those cuffs a lot of years.

Sort of like a plumber showing up with out any wrenches to fix a leaking faucet.

Still have my original cuffs, had to chase them down more than once at station houses, hospitals and county jails. All the extra cuffs were donated from retirees going out the door.

Maybe Dave (goes by ditvette) on the forum will show off some of his collection. It is quite impressive, if I remember correctly!
Larry

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Miss My Buddy crsides!!

In the olden days some guys just slid 1 cuff into their waistband.

Heck, on two occasions, once with the Chief and once with a detective, when served warrants, neither one had a firearm or cuffs! And both were astonished when I was able to produce equipment for them. “…where did that come from…”.

Kevin

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Unshared knowledge is wasted.

When watching television programs or movies you must keep in mind that the only important thing is the dramatic presentation. Reality has no place in these little dramas. The good guy will always have a gun when a gun is required in the script, but will never be encumbered with a gun (or handcuffs, flashlights, pocket sap, etc) when the scene being filmed has no need for such distractions.

When I started working in plain clothes (late 1970s) I always carried my handgun, ammunition, handcuffs, and a pocket sap (spring-loaded lead-weighted leather impact weapon). I was also on-call 24 hours per day on a rotating schedule and that required a pager and a pocket full of dimes for pay phones (remember those?).

Other things I found very handy to keep in the car included a 12-gauge shotgun, a M1 Carbine, a second handgun, at least one full change of clothing (never know just what you might get into here and there), and a dozen or more flashlight batteries. Always a box of highway flares. Extra handcuffs and (when they became available) plastic Flex-Cuffs.

All that was in a city environment. Then I went over to a state agency with a territory covering about 1/3 of the land area of Colorado, so my gear requirements evolved. Sleeping bag, blankets, parka, boots, coveralls, food and water for a day or two.

Had a trailer hitch mounted to my state car to tow my camping trailer. The bosses expected me to work cases in Colorado ski resort towns while living under fiscal restraints like maximum $34 per day for lodging. National forest campgrounds and parking lots behind county jails became my usual office space (the $34 per day was just added to my expense reimbursement reports, paid off the trailer in a few months then it was gravy!). I had a state gasoline credit card, but a lot of places did not take them so I had to pay expenses out of pocket, file for reimbursement at the end of the month, then wait about 6 weeks for payback time.

All of this was before cell phone days. I had a radio in my state car, but frequently found myself in areas with no communications for days at a time. Radio is "line of sight", and Colorado has a few obstacles here and there. Telephone calls from one town to the next town incurred "long distance" toll charges, and pay phones don't issue receipts, so I carried a telephone charge card (the state bean counters always questioned the necessity of every call, and they utterly refused to pay the taxes imposed on telephone bills).

I might leave the house intending to spend 3 days here or there, and get back home 3 weeks later with a week's worth of reports left to complete.

So much simpler when I was a puppy policeman! A notebook, couple of pens, a few dimes for the pay phones, couple of sets of handcuffs, and a big stick.

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Life of the party until 8:00PM

Impressive is a major understatement!
His display at Tulsa was the who's who of handcuffs.

You should see his leather collection!

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