Duty Gloves - What you need to know - Part 1

Types of Duty Gloves

There are Generally 3 types of Gloves

1) General Duty (no protection)
2) Cut Resistant
3) Puncture Resistant
4) Waterproof Liners

There is a misunderstanding out there about gloves being puncture PROOF and cut PROOF or fluid PROOF. Those statements are myths. There are cut, puncture and fluid resistant but no one duty glove will ever fully protect the wearer from all hazards. Another thing that needs to be added is that no glove or other piece of equipment can be a substitute for proper search techniques and training. Proper search techniques may include the following:

1) NEVER drag hands or fingers along clothing. Instead lightly pat down areas before you search.
2) NEVER place your hands into something you cannot see into or somewhere you haven't first patted down.

General Duty
General duty gloves offer NO PROTECTION.

Cut Resistance
Cut resistant means they are resistant to a certain amount of force. Although most cut resistant gloves are protected front, back and between fingers, don't take that for granted. Know your gloves protection area and its limitations. If I haven't already said it get some search training

Puncture Resistance
Puncture resistant means they are puncture resistant to a certain amount of force and to certain needle size. Most puncture resistant duty gloves DO NOT protect between YOUR fingers and in most cases DO NOT protect thumbs. Know your gloves protection area and its limitations. OH... and If I haven't already said it get some search training.

I've seen Officers runnning their hands under tables or putting hands or fingers into places they cannot see. BAD thing to do. NEVER put hands into an area you cannot see or have not searched, patted down or poked, prodded or swept with other implements. A tactical pen or pen will work wonders in these circumstances. Your agency should have proper search techniques in place. FOLLOW them. The stick of a needle may have life changing consequences.

Always wear glove protection when handling suspects, their property, shanks, or any razors you come in contact with regardless if they are safety razors or not. Gloves should be worn when handling suspects, detainees or their property at all times.

Issued gloves vs Purchased
In private security for the most part gloves are not issued. If you work in the private sector and you are issued gloves consider yourself lucky. The vast majority of Agencies in Law Enforcement and Government agencies supply gloves. Let me first say that while there are agencies who purchase gloves for their employees based on importance of protection and other who purchase based on price. For the most part my experience has been most agencies purchase based on the importance of price. When purchasing for hundreds or thousands of employees a $10, $20 or $30 difference in a pair of gloves adds up quickly.

Should you purchase your own gloves ?
I cannot answer that question for you. I can however give you my experience. When I started in Corrections I was issued a pair of leather gloves with a Kevlar lining. At the time I had no experience with gloves and was satisfied with my issued gloves because I trusted my agency knew what was best for me.

The gloves were a pair of basic leather gloves with a kevlar lining that bunched up at the fingers and the lining was a little short on the pinky finger making them uncomfortable to wear for long periods of time. They lasted less than a year before they were coming apart at the seams and the liner would come out when I pulled my hand out.

My second pair was equally cheap but had a spectra liner. Stitching was terrible and the liner began to smell bad. I went out in search of a pair of gloves.

After researching gloves I came across a pair of gloves, The ones I found were made of neoprene and spandex. Although pricey they were a decent glove that allowed for good dexterity when searching one of the faults of leather gloves. They didnt last long. In an incident less than 6 months later they became soiled with urine. At that point they were garbage. We will talk about soiled gloves later.

Gloves range in price from $35.00 up to almost $100. Each price range has different levels of protection and characteristics. Please call us if your unsure what you need.