Necessity is the mother of invention

Forget the glamour and high drama of TV: A cop's survival in an ugly situation these days boils down to split-second decisions.

There's no guarantee that backup will be there in a minute or two. The bad guy is highly unpredictable if mentally unstable or high on drugs. And the challenge in combating the most violent criminal is getting the cuffs on without resorting to deadly force.

With nearly 11 years of service under his belt that have taken him through the worst of Clark County's streets, Metro Police Officer Bob Hindi has found a way to boost a cop's advantage. He's done it, simply enough, by making a good tool better.

He's calling it the "Hindi End Cap" -- an attachment that can be twisted on to the end of any expandable straight, or friction-lock, baton that officers and security guards may carry as a defensive weapon.

It's little more than a mushroom-shaped knob. Yet, when attached to a straight cylindrical baton, simple physics factored into the cap's design make the baton unit easier to draw from a belt and hold on to in close-combat situations or bad weather. The Hindi End Cap also stops the baton from rolling out of an officer's hands -- and potentially into a suspect's clutches.

"What I've done is basically reshaped the end cap to make it a safer, more reliable tool for an officer without affecting the internal portion of the baton," Hindi said.

If gripped at the proper end, one firm flick of the wrist is enough to expand the baton three times its size. Retracting it takes a solid tap.

"Along with giving an officer an advantage, my end cap also decreases injury to the suspect, minimizes an officer's liability and lessens the liability to the department."

Capt. Mark Medina, chairman of Metro's Defensive Tactics Committee, said this week that the department is in the process of reviewing and testing Hindi's prototype.

"This is something that looks promising," Medina said.

The cap would make it easier for an officer to distinguish which end is the expandable end -- a critical element in low lighting.

Hindi recalled watching a sergeant in a training exercise drop his retracted baton, pick it up and attempt to shake out the wrong end.

"The baton wouldn't expand," Hindi said. "He had to stop, look at the baton and turn it around. You don't have the luxury of time like that during a dynamic situation in the street."

Hindi applied the same intensity in creating the piece as he used during his five years in the K-9 detail, where he and his German shepherd, Ex, apprehended some of the toughest criminals in town. The pair won several awards, among them the Top Dog grand prize in the Las Vegas K-9 trials in 1997 and trophies for handler protection, agility and area search skills.

It's cost him more than $3,000 and a year's worth of off-duty time preparing the necessary legal documents defining the cap's shape, purpose and advantages over current expandable batons.

He was notified last month by the U.S. Patent Office that his creation has patent-pending status, meaning that a search completed by the patent office found nothing currently on the market even remotely styled like the Hindi End Cap.

The Metro veteran now awaits notification by mail of his official patent number -- a wait that could take months if not more than a year, according to his attorney.

An experience one night not too long ago makes Hindi eager to see officers' and security guards' batons equipped with the device on their expandable batons.

He had been dispatched to the neighborhood of a woman victimized by a suspected serial rapist, who to this day remains at large after assaulting six women and attempting to attack a seventh between December 1996 and May.

Seconds after finding a possible suspect hiding in someone's back yard, a foot chase was on. Hindi jumped a fence to get to the suspect on the other side when disaster struck: the short arm on his PR-24 baton popped off, turning the almost L-shaped defensive weapon into a straight pole that fell from his holster and rolled straight to the suspect's feet.

At the time Hindi was not certified to carry an expandable straight baton, which he would later fashion his end cap to fit; the PR-24 was the only defensive baton on his belt that night.

Hindi jumped down and charged the guy, thinking he could push him away from the baton. But the suspect by then had the baton up to shoulder level -- Hindi's head level -- and was ready to strike.

"I was put in a deadly force situation because he picked it up," Hindi said.

Instead of shooting, and likely critically injuring or killing the suspect 7 feet away, Hindi reverted to hand-to-hand combat -- a decision, he said, that destroyed the chance at a smoother apprehension a baton normally provides.

"The suspect was far larger than me, he weighed more," Hindi said. "Situations like that happen so quickly. After it's over you have to think, 'Did I do the right thing?' An officer deals in millisecond decisions.

"In deadly force situations, you have to make sure that you react properly and de-escalate force using a tool if necessary that won't cut or cause an abrasion, which could be considered excessive force."

The encounter stirred concern later when Hindi was looking through catalogs to choose an expandable baton. The broken PR-24 rolled that night the way an expandable straight model would -- straight to the suspect, he said.

"If the baton would have had the end cap which I created on it, it would have stayed closer to me and the spot where it hit the ground. It would have circled instead of rolled."

Expandable batons are typically sold with a foam grip. Advertisements in police magazines often claim the foam grip is "tear resistant," "extra firm for added control" and provides a "sure grip."

Hindi got the end-cap idea while practicing with a foam-gripped baton at home, whacking a punching bag suspended from the ceiling of his garage. Despite company promises, his baton's foam grip couldn't keep his sweating hand from slipping.

On the street, that could translate into slippage from rain, snow or even sweat from the inevitable adrenaline rush in a confrontation.

Hindi thought back to his days as a wrestler, where a coach would often break up a training session by commanding him to "climb the ropes" -- one with knots for hand holds, the other straight and slippery.

The leverage principle clicked.

The biomechanics of the hand ruled out a ball-shaped end, he said. The pinkie -- the hand's weakest finger -- would easily slip. Octagon, square and triangular shapes were too sharp.

A local machine shop crafted a mushroom-shaped prototype for him, which, once tried out in practice, seemed perfect.

"I think it is something that just skipped past someone's eye -- something that everyone else just overlooked," said Sgt. Chuck Jones, a Metro defensive tactics instructor who holds a black belt in Shotokan karate. He started carrying a friction-lock baton about a month ago.

"The knob is a clever idea to use on a baton. It makes it easier to grab. If suspects tried to reach for the baton, they would have a much harder time trying to pull it out of your hand because you'd have a solid end to help you keep your grip."

Metro detectives and special units such as K-9 and SWAT started training with expandable batons about a year and a half ago. Training for patrolmen, such as Jones, began about six months ago.

"With the PR-24, you have a lot of problems getting in and out of patrol cars," Jones said. "It can catch on doors. With what Bob Hindi has come out with, there's nothing that hinders around your belt, there's no inconvenience and it helps you draw your weapon out faster, which is important in fighting situations."

Baton attachments aren't new. Already on the market are flashlight end caps and some that can be monogrammed or printed with a department's emblem.

Hindi hopes to sell his idea to an interested manufacturer who can choose what substance to use to make the cap. His only requests are that the final product be durable, rust-resistant and accessible to officers and security guards everywhere.

"This end cap was developed by a police officer for a police officer because I understand the needs and the safety that's required on the street," Hindi said. "Developing it has been a personal achievement. It could save an officer's life, and that gives me the greatest satisfaction beyond anything else."

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