New Zealand security industry rules, prohibit officers from using enforcement tools such as, guns, tasers and batons, where officers in other parts of the world have immediate access to these resources; the disadvantage of these limitations in New Zealand, ultimately restricts and affects situation response efficiency and safety, due to the lack of available regulation compliant resources.
It must be also noted that the greatest risks for assault to security and enforcement officers is during the control and restraint process. In a US 2012 study 41% of police injuries on the job were due to assault, with 90.9% of all assaults occurring during suspect arrest.
The situation remains that many security and enforcement officers are often working against greater numbers or patrolling alone; the majority of the time, only armed with a torch as a means for situation response and defense.
Situations frequently emerge where offenders manage to put up sustained resistance, leaving officers vulnerable to the increased risk of bystanders becoming involved on an offender’s behalf, increasing the risk of potential injury to officers and offenders with every passing second, particularly when restraining an offending subject while applying handcuffs.
CONCEPT:
With 26 years experience in security, having encountered countless situations requiring the restraint of violent subjects, Sten’s thinking was how to conceive a compliant tool, that could be utilised to effectively and safely empower enforcers in gaining safe control of non-compliant offenders; effectively reducing the risks of volatile situations manifesting and decreasing the chances of injury to the security and enforcement officer.
As a result of 33 years as a high ranking Jiu Jitsu practitioner, Sten conceived that with effective application and training, a compliant device could be developed to address the problem and ultimately provide a feasible working solution.
During 2004, while working within the Security and Traffic Department at Massey University in New Zealand; taking inspiration from active duty experience apprehending offenders, armed only with a basic tool such as a torch; the idea to fill the force continuum gap, between response action and a compliant tool became apparent. Amalgamating a grappling aid such as that of the shaft of a torch and standard issue handcuffs would increase leverage when “bottle-capping” with a cuff during the restraint procedure, to which the idea evolved.
The concept was pitched to Dr. Gavin Clark, the Director of Research Commercialisation at Massey University, who embraced backing the idea; who responded by submitting a patent application on behalf of the university, enabling Sten to begin work on initial prototyping. In time the university subsequently signed the patent over to Sten, concluding their involvement with the project, where over the next few years Sten planned the next phases of research and development.
Realising that in order to take the concept further, Sten would require increased ongoing support, which during a Jiu Jitsu event in 2011, the idea was presented to Simon Ogden who showed great interest in the concept, which led to the project gaining leadership and further momentum, with the sourcing of additional financial and commercial support with the additional involvement of Andrew Standish.
Since then under the direction of Simon; several prototypes have been developed which have been tested in live training by New Zealand Police; The level of compliance achieved even with the first crude prototype was astonishingly effective and effortless, the handle/grip format allowed the cuff itself to be used, in extremis, as an impact, pressure, and leverage tool. It also became immediately apparent during live testing that the simplicity and safety of the basic usage method could offer optimized professional training time and rapid user effectiveness.
Further prototyping delivered more sophisticated functional developments, integrating the male and female interlocking handles/grips, which allowed the cuffs to be connected together and used as a rigid grip between the handcuffs.
SOLUTION: (current)
Today the S-TEN CUFF ™ solution is well on pace to achieving exceptional innovation in an otherwise static product category, where theory and application have been united to solve an inevitable problem for enforcement; as it approaches the final phases in its initial prototype developments towards market entry; S-10 SECURITY Ltd ™ have engaged in some ground breaking engineering, design and manufacturing, encompassed by practical application and simple usability, which is set to limelight situation response and safety for enforcement, military and security officers as well as safety for offenders.
Current feedback from prospective users including New Zealand Police has been overwhelmingly positive; this positive response is set to launch the S-TEN CUFF ™ into a new era of innovation in restraints, meeting the need for compliant enforcement tools in an increasingly demanding and aware industry both in New Zealand and globally.
https://s-10security.com/
