In my career as a patrol officer and a field training officer, I’ve not only reorganized my duty bag hundreds of times but I’ve also helped setup probably a hundred of them. Cops quickly learn that you want your duty bag to be light but carry all the essentials aka “what do I really need” and have it ready and available when needed. I’ve complied the list below for what you really need in that patrol duty bag (no particular order).
Required forms
Your agency/service will have paper forms that you will no doubt need to fill out on the roadside. Some agencies/services still do paper tickets, so have a stack of those. Other forms you may want to look into: roadside release forms, tow forms, and evidence submission forms.
Water
You should have some sort of water bottle to carry with you as you’ll be on road and depending on your agency/service you might be call to call. Stay hydrated and have a water bottle ready to go. I carry two bottles with me.
Extra Ammo
There is no harm in having a couple extra mags for your long gun and primary weapon. I have 2 mags for my AR15 and 2 mags for GLOCK on the side of my duty bag for easy access. Practice shooting from a seated position in your cruiser if possible and you’ll find it might be easier to reload using the mags from the side of your duty bag than the ones on your person.
Medical Kit
Have a spare tourniquet (you should always carry one on your persons) as well as essentials such as band aids, pain relieve (Advil, Tylenol), allergy medication, and eye drops. Also keep the other basics of a medical kit such as gauze pads, scissors, antiseptic wipes, and/or rubbing alcohol.
Backup Flashlight and Battery
Your primary flashlight will fail at some point, whether the bulb will burn out or whether the battery will die. Shit happens, I’ve gone to use my primary flashlight only to realize the battery is dead on more than one occasion. Have a backup flashlight and a battery in your duty bag. It’s best to get a backup flashlight that uses the same battery technology, for example both of mine use 18650 batteries so I can use the backup for both.
Hand sanitizer
You’ll be dealing with a variety of situations and people, hand sanitizer is not a bad idea at all and I’d say it’s a requirement. Make sure to get one with at least 80% alcohol, as anything else is unlikely to kill bacteria.
Gloves
I have a spare pair of mechanix gloves in my duty bag but I also have a small box of nitrile gloves that you’ll see paramedics wear. I always have a few in my pocket, and a pair of mechanix gloves in my back pocket but it’s great to have more available should you not be able to make it back to the station to grab more before the next call.
N95 masks
Similar to hand sanitizer, it’s something you’ll be grateful to have on the road. Especially considering the increase of fentanyl found in all drugs on the street that you’ll more than likely come into contact with. It can also be helpful to have one for a really bad body.
Binoculars
Sometimes you’ll need to see from a great distance without getting too close and a good pair of binoculars will do that for you. You do not need to spend a fortune but $35-50 is a good range to be in. Binoculars have been helpful on investigations but also finding missing persons during searches.
Evidence bags
You don’t want to be transporting someone back to the station with all their belongings rolling around your cruiser. At the same time, you might have a case which results in a lot of evidence seizure and having the bags there is super handy.
Flash USB drive
These days almost all video surveillance systems save video to a USB drive. Get a 64gb or 128gb one so you can store multiple videos especially if you are doing a canvas and your agency/service policy allows for it. Some agencies/services want one source (USB drive) for each location so double check.
Extra Handcuffs
This only if you aren’t carrying two on your persons. You can pretty much assume you’ll be arresting or detaining more than one person on an incident at least a couple times a month (depending on how busy your agency/service is).
Pens
In this job, always have multiple pens ready to go.
Notepads or Notebook
Depending on your agencies/services note taking policy, it would be wise to take an extra black notepad or notebook and have it in your duty bag. That way if you fill out your current one you can take that one out without having to go back to the station. It also never fails that you’ll have a couple pages left in your current notebook when you get that big call that requires lots of notes.
Clipboard
You’ll want some sort of hard surface to write on and it’s helpful when you need a statement and your witness needs somewhere to write. These are pretty much the essentials for any blanket police agency or service however it would be wise to review your agencies/services policies to ensure you do not miss something else!
Ben