Worth noting that the courts are unlikely to agree with you regarding the "unlawful" nature of the restraints you find yourself in. In other words, this is a good way to escalate a bad situation to way, way worse.
Yeah if you thought the beat-down you got before and after the cuffs went on was bad, you're really not going to enjoy the one you get after they come off.
The project doesn't suggest what types of scenarios are unlawful. Civilians can buy handcuffs too. What if you're kidnapped?!
I imagine their customer base overlaps significantly with the "prepper" and "tactical" crowds who also have $100,000 bunkers in their backyards and full body SWAT gear, etc.
I mean, three of the five sites that covered them have "tactical" in the name.
I wouldn't support this because: the campaign project members are anonymous (and thus cannot be held accountable), the project is flexibly funded (meaning they get the money either way), and the key IS NOT A UNIVERSAL HANDCUFF KEY.
There was a presentation on "The Ultimate Handcuff Key" at CarolinaCon 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjfGwRE_DF8&t=29m30s where they demo and give data and measurements for all the handcuffs and keys they could find.
They show a calculated 'universal key', and how to make it. Notably it has a notch down the center of the blade.
Looking at the TIHK, they are very obviously NOT using this design.
You can, however, watch the talk and learn how to make one of these keys yourself with a specific handcuff key, a file, and a dremel tool.
(way too serious reply) If the person with the key suddenly has a seizure and you're shackled up and can't do anything to help them, you'll quickly wish you had a paper clip and had taken a locksport class, or had this clipped to your underwear.
I foresee a lot of people being surprised to realize that correct handcuff technique has the lock at the back of the hand where itchy fingers won't be able to reach.
Handcuffs are placed so that the lock is away from the hands, as well as double-locked in order to thwart shims.
It's fairly difficult to use a key while properly cuffed, but not impossible however, if you're caught trying to escape you'll be adding another charge to whatever you're being detained for...
To everyone talking about law enforcement: I think that the use of the key is implied for being arrested, but by 'unlawful restraint' they just mean some random person restraining you (kiddnapping?). Some random person probably wouldn't use proper handcuffing technique.
Unless you have very small wrists, they're quite good at this. I do have small wrists, but it's quite easy to make a handcuff tight enough that I can't wiggle around to it. The lock isn't placed on a particular side, it's up to the person putting the handcuffs on to turn them the right way up. And they do - police officers train in and practice this, because their lives may depend on it.
Does anyone have reliable stats for the number of people illegally held in handcuffs?
Or what the best course of action is? I suspect (in the UK) you should stay calm, and polite, and cooperative up to a point, and say nothing without a lawyer, and then sort it out afterwards (and collect some money for wrongful arrest.)
"Fix it later" is almost certainly the best course of action with the police. "Fix it now" (via force) is almost certainly among the worst courses of action.
To all the sarcastic commenters here, sounds like none of you have ever been unlawfully cuffed. I'm happy for you. If you or a loved one ever had been, you would be thankful that products like this exist.
So your argument is that because this product does not help with every situation in which a person can be bound — it is useless? I don't understand. That's like saying that having a spare tire in your car is useless because you might overheat.
% of rapes involving handcuffs
*
% of rapes standard handcuffs used in such a way that both the keyhole and key are accessible to the hands
*
% of rapes where the victim is left unattended and fully clothed (presumably the key is in the clothes or keys) long enough to unlock the handcuffs
*
% chance of victim remembering to clip the handcuff key to their clothing
*
% chance escaping from handcuffs will result in a better outcome for the victim
*
% chance victim is not under constant intimidation and control of the perpetrator
Given that the first number - rapes that involve handcuffs - seems almost undetectable and the chances of a successful beneficial escape are quite low, I'm going to say handcuff keys are the equivalent of a tin foil hat as a rape prevention tool.
Is that a really a frequent enough occurrence to justify always carrying a handcuff key? I'd say that's likely to happen to your average skateboarder about once every thousand lives. You might be better off learning self defense tactics and avoiding being handcuffed in the first place. If you were manhandled enough to be handcuffed, you're unlikely to get very far with a key.
It seems to me that there's not a lot of cases where removing the unlawful cuffs will actually improve your situation. It seems like it's more likely to get you beaten/tazed until you stop resisting.
The "mitigating mass arrests" scenario I mentioned is one where it could help, though.
Yeah, and along with that I'd like a course in kicking the gun pointed at my head out of the holder's hand, then using it to shoot the three other guards watching over me. They do it on TV all the time, can't be that hard.
This is useful as a novelty for the modern activist, but nothing more. In practical terms it would make most arrest situations far worse.
This tool only makes sense for hardcore criminals, with little to lose by running from the police, maybe some law enforcement or military application, and for activism fashionistas.
As a hacker, such a simple tool defeating handcuffs is rather cool. Are they all on a single un-keyed unlock tool, like a cheap interior house lock? I'd expect specific keys matched with specific cuffs.
Serious activists are prepared for the possibility of arrest. This involves having the proper phone numbers memorized, not carrying anything of value while protesting, and knowing what to say to law enforcement.
This tool would be of negative value to them, as it would only hurt their position if it was found in a search. Getting arrested, on the other hand, can prove to be beneficial, as the event can be set inside a narrative of police excess, driving public sympathy to their cause.
Yep, that's about right. Especially the memorizing the phone numbers part.
One of my mother's former law partners used to help get Martin Sheen out of jail whenever he arrested protesting. He actually has a quick cameo in the first season of the West Wing. He's a state judge now, but still has a bit of that radical streak in him.
He once described the whole elaborate choreography of activist arrest and release. You want the media to be present, both at arrest and release. You want the use of force by the police to be both disproportionate and highly visible.
There are a whole series of elaborate rules to make the state's use of force work for you. Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals is the traditional primer in this sort of thing, but it's always interesting to hear the stories of those that lived that type of life.
Anybody interested in this topic should check out the Crimethinc Collective. They have many excellently written essays about the minutiae of activism, including ins and outs of the more dangerous "black bloc" tactics.
At least around here (Germany) it probably wouldn't be as useful to activists. From what I noticed they just use large cable ties instead of handcuffs. Faster to apply, you can carry a lot of them and the key would be rather useless.
I'm not suggesting that activists here could actually use them, as that would lead to very bad consequences.
I see it more as a statement. For example, in high school I used to carry around a bootable USB stick on my keychain with a little Linux distro that would automatically remove the root/administrator password on any Windows/Mac/Linux box at which I could sit at the console. It was never used for harm, but it just seemed like a cool thing to have.
Evade Unlawful Handcuff Restraint... Right. And their follow-up product will be a tool to open a car door in case you are accidentally trapped in the caged back seat of a car with no internal door handles.
Well I could see this escalating into something more serious than it ought to be. This could how ever be useful for a criminal with nothing to lose which in that case this product could be helping criminals escape.
Some metal detector only work on ferromagnetic metals, which wouldn't be the case for the alloys they are going for. In any case at under one gram they are likely under the threshold of detection and are easy to store near legitimate metal, like a zipper.
Since the indiegogo site will have been added to the 'criminal intelligence' database, every paranoid cop will take extra care.
You would be horrified at the number of snopes.com myths cops believe in, so something with the potential to be real will have them in a frenzy.
Expect lots of people to be beaten and tazer'd over the next week or two as a direct result of the hysteria this creates in cops all over the place believing people have a hidden super secret magic handcuff key.
True that regarding rigid handcuffs... The ones with a chain connecting the pair are susceptible to manipulation which can break one of the swivels. (SERE)
On somewhat of a tangent, this reminds me of the German guy who 3D printed keys for some of the more high-tech handcuffs awhile back.
"Evade Unlawful Handcuff Restraint", indeed. I suppose the order form requires you to pinky-promise that you won't use it if lawfully restrained, cross your heart.
These guys know very well who their target market is, and it's not "law enforcement, military, and security professionals...restrained with their own cuffs".
Be a nice thing to pass on to your friendly neighborhood activists, though. I've known a couple of guys who always kept a lighter in their back pocket to melt through those plastic zip-tie cuffs. When there's mass arrests at a protest, it's good to be able to help a bunch of hastily-cuffed peaceniks get loose and melt away into the crowd before the paddy wagon shows up. You probably won't get everybody, but you'll do a lot of good if you can keep the pigs from getting their hands on women and openly gay/transgender people.
