An attempt by someone to get your gun is a fight for you life and all bets are off — it is now a deadly force situation. But what if I carry a sweet auto-opening folding knife? Does it matter where and how I carry it? And do I need to practice retaining it? What happens if it falls into the wrong hands? Whatever your answer to these questions I’m sure we would all agree that we wouldn’t want to unintentionally introduce a deadly weapon into a fight.
Like me, you were probably taught some basic weapon retention. In addition to the mad skills I learned at the Academy, mine sits in a triple threat holster adding another layer of protection. Honestly, I feel pretty good about that so if I get into a scuffle I can concentrate on getting the bad guy under control. But also like me, I’m guessing you were trained to retain your pistol, and only your pistol.
One Way Or Another
Over the years I’ve seen officers carry both fixed blade and folding knives with pocket clips while in uniform. I’ve also seen knives carried in various locations: front pocket, back pocket, thigh pocket, belt line, boot, and ankle. I’ve done just about every carry position in uniform and when I was in SWAT gear I carried a sheath knife on my kit. The main reason I did that — I thought it looked cool. I did that for years until one day when I had a change of heart. Since then I changed my own carry position and started paying attention to how other officers carried theirs.
Sometimes I’ll casually ask someone why they carry their knife one way or another and the answer is always the same, If I have to get to it quick in a deadly force situation it has to be easily accessible — or some variation of that answer.
Frankly, I don’t blame them. I’m just not personally aware of any cases in which an officer ended a struggle that resulted in the use of deadly force by means of an edged weapon, i.e., their pocket knife. Is that a possible scenario? Sure, but so is ending it with the Wushi Finger Hold (for those of you without children, this is a Kung Fu Panda reference). My point is that it’s possible but not probable.
Going Full Nerd
At the risk of going full nerd, I did some research, also known as “Googling.” According to the NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information) only 1% of deaths caused by police during a use of force incident was due to the use of blunt or sharp instruments. Blunt and sharp instruments were lumped together into one category which goes to show how small an overall number the use of edged weapons by officers actually is.
For the purpose of this discussion, in order to have a true apples-to-apples comparison I’d have to find a study on how many incidents involved the suspect getting the officer’s pocket knife and then using it against them. I couldn’t find research with that kind of data which means that Google doesn’t know everything or that data just doesn’t exist. So, we must carry on with what we have and then weigh these two competing values in the scales of our mind and determine which outweighs the other: accessibility for us or inaccessibility for them. It’s the classic risk versus reward scenario.
Since non-deadly force encounters are the majority of all use of force, I think that it tips the scales in favor of carrying our knives in such a way that is inaccessible for them. In other words, it is better to keep our secondary edged weapons (that’s a knife, people) in a place where we can get to it with reasonable ease but that the bad guy cannot, and preferably does not even know it’s there. This limits the probability of someone else coming across our pocket knife during a struggle, even if it’s inadvertent.
Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind
What we don’t want is to get in a wrestling match where the bad guy ends up with his hands on our knife while we are only thinking about retaining our pistol. I don’t know about you but I’ve never been trained or have practiced retaining my pistol and my knife. So, me personally, I keep my knife out of sight and out of mind.
In my opinion you are far more likely to to use your knife as a tool, not as a weapon. And of course you don’t want your knife (or any other tool for that matter) to be used as a weapon against you. That means carrying your knife someplace reasonably accessible but in a place that only you know about. Concealment is the often the first and best form of retention.
Tools Vs. Weapons
Knives are great for slipping latches on doors, prying things open, cutting seat belts, and the like. If you view them primarily as a tool and not a self-defense weapon it will likely change the way you think about how you carry them.
My Take
I carry a folding knife clipped to the strap on my bullet proof vest. I’m right-handed, so it goes on my left side. To get at it I unbutton one button (maybe someday I’ll get issued one of those fancy uniform shirts with a zipper), slip my hand inside my shirt, and viola! I have my knife in hand and ready to go. I find that carrying it clipped to the strap of my vest is the best balance of comfort, ease of access, and of course, it’s well concealed.
Depending on what your uniform is or your division assignment, you will have to adapt how you carry it. My advice: carry it out of sight and out of mind where you can get it with relative ease but no one else can — just in case.
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- Do you carry a knife in uniform?
- Where?
- Why do you keep it there?
- Is there a better way to carry it?
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