Worn and Carried Around the DNC

This is part two of a two part piece about the apparel and gear worn/carried by the security teams around the DNC in Philadelphia.  This second part will discuss guns, knives, flashlights, some holsters and a very brief note about radios. In part one we talked about the apparel worn: pants, shirts, boots and eyewear.

Guns:

Variations of Glocks and Sigs were the dominant guns that I saw.  I was carrying a Glock Model 17 in 9mm and various members of the team I was with were either carrying the same model OR they were carrying a different Glock (the Model 30 in .45ACP was also prevalent). One team member was carrying a Sig P290 in 9mm and I saw a member of a different team carrying a Glock Model 23 – the mid-size .40S&W. The capacity of ammo for weapons varied greatly from as little as eight rounds per magazine to as high as seventeen rounds per magazine.  Those I spoke with seemed to feel that if you were going to carry a weapon with seven rounds or less of magazine capacity, you might as well carry a revolver.

FYI: I saw one citizen openly carrying a rifle in FDR Park – open carry being legal in Pennsylvania for long guns.  He was surrounded by five officers who walked with him everywhere he went.  It was explained to me that the officers were there to insure his own safety – because apparently there were some anti-gun activists in the park, and to insure that those who saw him didn’t feel threatened.

Holsters:

In The Waistband (IWB) holsters were the prevalent and preferred method of carrying.  The deeper the concealment, the better, so IWB was the way to go. Raven Concealment, Alien Gear and Kinetic Concealment seemed to be the dominant brands I saw.  That said, ON the belt holsters were also represented well and I even saw one gentlemen who wore his gun in a belly-band every day.

My concerns with the belly-band and IWB holsters is the lack of secondary security.  With the gun being held in by tension only, I see a potential for the gun to come out when it’s not supposed to if you end up scuffling with someone or running hard.  The few holsters I saw that were on a belt all had some type of secondary retention, whether it was a thumb strap or an interior device (like a trigger guard hook or similar).  Those on the belt holsters seemed to have a bit higher level of retention and security although they were admittedly far less concealable.

FYI: I only saw one person carrying a handgun that had a weapon light mounted.  His holster was a custom kydex job that fit his Glock 22/Streamlight M3 gun/light combination like a glove.  That said, he wore it ON his belt and there was no secondary retention.  I’ve never really been a fan of lights on handguns unless the user is a K9 officer or on a SWAT team.  The individual in question is a full time SWAT officer so I understood why he had the weapon light mounted.  For a security detail and what equated to off-duty use, I feel like the addition of the light makes the whole package that much bulkier and difficult to conceal. Everyone has to make their own choice and he was comfortable with his.

Knives:

Where knives were concerned, virtually everyone I saw was carrying one, if not two, and CRKT seemed to rule the day. While I did see a few Emersons and Kershaws in pockets here and there, the LARGE majority of the knives I saw clipped in pockets were from CRKT.  Any variation of the M16 folding family was what I saw most.  There were some M21 designs but the CRKT M16 basic was the preferred knife everywhere I went.  The one-handed opening that was NOT assisted seemed to be what was appreciated.

The smallest knife I saw clipped in a pocket had a 3.5” blade and the largest ran about 5”.  The guy carrying the big blade was about six and a half feet tall so the knife didn’t look so big in his hand or clipped in his pocket.

I also saw one or two boot knives and a couple of smaller fixed blade knives that were secreted about the carrier’s waist, usually inside the waistband.  Virtually every person I saw with a knife had the blade available to their off hand – that is to say their non-gun hand – for weapon retention and defense purposes.  The folks I saw carrying two knives often specified one as their utility blade and the other as their weapon retention/defense blade.

Flashlights:

One might expect SureFire to be the most common flashlight carried, but much to my surprise, Extreme Beam seemed to be the most prevalent brand.  Most of the people I interacted with carried at least one light in their cargo pocket but many folks had a second smaller light dropped in a pants pocket, chest pocket or shoulder pocket.  Most of the lights were LED lamps driven by either AA or AAA batteries, but all of them still pushed more than 120 lumens of light.  Several had multi-function switching for a high beam, low beam and strobe mode.

I’d say the light balance count was about 4-to-1 Extreme Beam to SureFire.  There were a few other brands seen but most of them were department store brands that the people carrying them considered them disposable.  Even the guy who had a Streamlight M3 mounted on his handgun had two flashlights on his person.

Radios:

Handheld radios are made by a collection of different manufacturers with varying levels of security.  Some radios allow you to program your frequency and have the ability to encrypt your traffic.  Others… you’re stuck with the number of channels and preprogrammed frequencies that come in the radio when you buy it.  The radios I saw were predominantly from Ericson and Kenwood with some Motorolas and other brands thrown in.  Some were programmable, some not – but virtually every one of them had eight channels or more with a talk-around (non-repeated) capability.

Everyone carrying a radio could be identified by the ear-piece and small coiled wire running up the back or side of their neck.  Lapel microphones were the most widely used unless the security personnel were in suits.  The suit wearers seemed to favor clipping the mic to the cuff of their sleeve.  Everyone else, all of them wearing short sleeve shirts, clipped the microphone inside the short row of buttons near their collar, so they could tilt their head down to talk.

The one challenge virtually all of us faced was echo inside the artificial canyons of the city.  Out in FDR Park it wasn’t so bad, but inside the city – next to city hall – the echo and extraneous noise made it difficult to comprehend what was coming in through the ear-piece. There seems little that can be done about this, but it’s a limitation that users should be aware of.

So… that’s your overview of the “hard” ear worn and carried by most folks working security around the DNC.  I hope the information comes in handy if you find yourself working such an assignment.