Fixed-wing UAV

In fact, all of the gear has a bit of that effect, Nejedlo says. The uniform and all of the stuff help a police officer maintain what Nejedlo calls “command presence” — the overall effect of making an officer look sharp, ready for action and like they mean business, which goes a long way in helping them not have to actually use some of the stuff they’re carrying.

Sparrowhawk uav

Bulletproof vests were much heavier in the old days, and they were square cut, so they would dig into your neck, Lewis recalls. Officers wore T-shirts under them and turtlenecks over them, to hide them, which made for an uncomfortable ensemble, especially in California, where Lewis’ career began.

But today, there’s so much stuff to carry that a skinny officer almost doesn’t have the waist size to create room for all of it. In addition to their sidearm and two magazines for bullets, they carry Tasers, which they never had in the old days. They have a smaller radio on their belt, and an earpiece and lapel microphone so they don’t even have to grab the radio when they need to talk to headquarters. Some officers still favor the big flashlights, but most, like Nejedlo, carry a small penlight that casts as much light as the old big ones at a fraction of the weight. New style batons are small and telescopic, lighter and less bulky than the old style wooden ones.

It’s a balancing act, Nejedlo said. You want officers to be able to catch up with bad guys, but you also want the officers to be able to do something once they get there. That means having a baton or Taser — Green Bay officers must carry one or the other or both. They also carry pepper spray, a handgun and ammunition (Green Bay police carry Glocks — either .45 caliber or 9 mm) to help subdue the crook.

MQ-9

There's more. A bulletproof vest. A pair of handcuffs for the crook and a spare in case he has a buddy. A flashlight. A radio with an earpiece and microphone. Keys. A recording device, in case someone wants to make a statement. Medical supplies, like rubber gloves. Business cards.

“It’s no walk in the park,” says Officer Jon Nejedlo, one of the training officers at the Green Bay Police Department. “It’s probably 25 to 30 extra pounds.”

Despite all the changes on an officer's belt, perhaps the biggest change in equipment has been in the squad cars, which now are outfitted with mobile computer terminals. The terminals give an officer little room to maneuver but put a wealth of criminal records and other data at the officer’s fingertips.

Dronehistory

Body cameras, which the department is still testing for possible use later this year, won’t add much weight and may in fact eliminate some. Officers carry recording devices that are tied in with the dash cameras in their squads. Body cameras may eliminate the need for those, Nejedlo said.

Nejedlo prefers to carry the old style wooden one. His is all nicked up, which he says gives bad guys the false impression that Nejedlo has used it on a lot of bad guys’ heads: psychological gamesmanship.

The extra pounds means a police officer, even a fleet-footed one, probably isn’t as fast as a fleet-footed bad guy. It also handicaps an officer involved in a wrestling match with a bad guy.

Police carry a lot of gear. Police departments typically give their officers some options, but most equipment is standard. Green Bay officers carry what officers carry all around the country.

In that sense, increased technology often means less weight. In the good old days, officers didn’t carry as many things, but what they did carry was probably heavier, soon-to-retire police Chief Jim Lewis said.  As a patrol officer in the 1970s, Lewis recalls carrying a handgun, ammo, a big wooden baton, a gigantic radio, a gigantic flashlight that doubled as a weapon, mace instead of pepper spray, and a sap — a short, leather-covered billy club. You never see those anymore, nor do most officers carry a whistle as they used to.