I’ll admit I have a soft spot and a heavy bias toward Nightstick products. But it’s for a good reason. One that’s very near and dear to my heart.
My wife and many of my closest friends are LEOs. Some are beat cops in small municipalities. Some are deputy sheriffs. And many are feds.
While they are all very capable individuals who stick to their training and would probably shrug off my overbearing adoration for them as just “Ritter being his weird ole self,” there’s one undeniable truth.
All of them, regardless of beat, locale, or agency, depend heavily on their duty gear to bring them home safely.
Cuffs, comms, holsters, and ballistic vests play a large role in that, no doubt. But some of the smaller gear, like weaponlights and duty lights, are also mission-critical tools, despite often being overlooked. And that’s something I want to bring to light (pun intended).
That said, this read is going to be very personal and, naturally, will skew very much in Nightstick’s favor. Just a forewarning.
That out of the way, let’s get to the short and skinny of it.
An Emphasis on Duty Lights
By now, you’re probably wondering why I’m so heavily focused on weaponlights and duty lights over literally any other piece of duty gear. A valid question, and one I’ve been asked many times before.
Ironically, the answer comes from a totally non-tactical-related experience when I was about 17 or 18. A senior in high school.
The girl I was dating at the time really liked going to those overpriced haunted houses around Halloween. Me, not so much. I don’t like people in masks, and I definitely don’t like jump scares or people following me. Especially if they have a chainsaw or something dumb like that.
Anyway, because I was Mr. Macho-Man and trying to look tough, I caved and took her to the top-rated haunted house at the time, which occupied an abandoned zoo.
Weird, right? Yeah, I thought so, too.
Regardless, I made it through the haunted house, arms crossed and head on a swivel the entire time.
Well, I thought I made it all the way through, but my sigh of relief was cut short.
What looked like an exit was actually the final part of the haunted house: A pitch-black maze, filled to the brim with “scarers” touching you, breathing in your ear or down your neck while wearing night vision and/or thermal optics.
In other words, they could see me, but I couldn’t even see my own hand in front of my face.
What’s worse is I was eventually separated from my group and had to find my way out alone, despite knowing there were foreign eyes upon me.
I felt like Clarice Starling in Silence of the Lambs (1991) as she was trapped in Buffalo Bill’s house. Not a good feeling, though I’m sure that was exactly the vibe the haunted house was going for.
Never again. God no. Never ever.
What’s the Point?
The point I’m trying to make is that sometimes the unexpected happens, and conditions can change in an instant. This is especially true for LEOs and military personnel.
While my experience was in a relatively controlled environment, and I actually paid to be made to feel uneasy for an hour or so, I am acutely aware that my loved ones in uniform willingly enter environments where control is exceptionally limited.
LEOs and operators enter foreign and potentially hostile areas at a stark disadvantage, relying heavily on training, senses, and their duty gear to get through it and make it home at the end of the day. As a LEO spouse and a friend to so many in uniform, it’s something that used to haunt me and keep me up at night.
I’d fret and stew, remembering that God-awful feeling of being totally alone and entirely too vulnerable in that ridiculous haunted house, amplified by the inherent risks and very real dangers my loved ones willingly faced with each shift.
But because so many of them, my wife included, are always strapped with their Nightstick weaponlights and/or duty lights, I can rest a little easier.
Why Nightstick?
There’s no shortage of quality weaponlights and duty lights out there. The market is chock-full of ’em. Off hand, I can think of several top-tier brands, and the competition is fierce. That much is a given.
But, in my honest opinion, Nightstick’s products are really the créme de la créme. The icing on the cake, the real crack-shot.
They consistently outperform the competition in terms of price, consistency, and overall quality. Their customer service is unbeatable, too, and I’m not ashamed to say that I’m a bona fide Nightstick loyalist.
And that loyalty runs deep.
It’d be easy to go out and purchase any ole light. As I said, there are plenty out there. But I’ll go out of my way to purchase and use a Nightstick light over the competition any day because I know they’ll work.
Not just for me, a civilian, when working on my truck or making post-dusk trips to the woodshed for a little extra firewood, but for my friends in uniform and, above all else, my wife.
Where others have failed, Nightstick lights have kept on a-truckin’. It doesn’t matter if it’s a “simple” search on yet another sub-zero night in northern Missouri with 13 inches of snow and ice on the ground or a “routine” stop on a clear June evening; Nightstick lights do their friggin job.
They do their part, no matter how big or small, to help bring our heroes home at the end of the day. And that, to me, is worth a bit of love.
Qualified Praise
To help drive the point home, several of my good friends in uniform use or have used Nightstick products in the line of duty. They have a lot of opinions. A lot.
And while their experiences and opinions don’t always jive, they all seem to agree that Nightstick weaponlights and handheld duty lights are 100% worth their weight in gold.
That might be an overused idiom, but it’s true.
I asked a few of them to share their honest thoughts on their duty lights. This is what they had to say:
“As an out-county officer, I put a lot of faith in my duty gear, and it’s a bad day when gear quits or fails. My Nightstick duty light, though, has never failed me, and I’m incredibly thankful for that.“
“My agency issues Nightstick lights almost exclusively. I think that’s a testament to the quality of their products.“
“I’ve used a lot of department-issued gear over the years, but my Nightstick lights leave little to be desired. “
“Nightstick stuff just works. That’s good enough for me.“
So sure, it’s easy to sing Nightstick’s praises from the perspective of a “civvy.” Nightstick lights, both handheld and weapon-mounted, have served me well. They’ve taken a beating at the range. They’ve been ridden hard and put away wet. And they’ve quite literally been dragged through the mud a time or two. Yet they keep running strong.
They’re absolutely fantastic and outperform many other comparable lights currently on the market. High praise, no doubt.
But it pales in comparison to the praise I’ve heard from our brothers and sisters in uniform.
Knowing that those I care so deeply about have as much faith (if not more than) as I do in their Nightstick duty lights while wearing the uniform is a big friggin deal.
Nightstick’s Latest & Greatest
Nightstick engineers and product designers never seem to stagnate. Which is a good thing.
And over the last few years, they’ve really pushed the envelope with improved tech and new designs that have been received with a ton of acclaim, particularly with LEOs and first responders. One such example is the Nightstick USB-588XL dual tactical light.
Nightstick USB-588XL dual tactical light
While it’s been out for a little while, the USB-588XL is a shining example of Nightstick’s dedication to quality and innovation.
Featuring a purpose-built, fully waterproof (IPX7) aluminum body and a shatterproof polycarbonate lens, the USB-588XL is a rugged little thing despite only weighing about 6 ounces.
It’s built to withstand the rigors of duty applications and rough-and-tumble civilian use.
But what really makes this light stand out in an already saturated market is Nightstick’s Dual-Light technology with momentary-on and constant-on functionality.
The front-facing flashlight offers a tightly focused 1,100-lumen spot beam, perfect for perimeter searches and positive ID on distant targets. The downward-facing light, on the other hand, provides a more modest 350-lumen flood beam, which works well for spotting and gathering ditched, ground-dwelling evidence and illuminating your immediate area.
Each light operates independently of the other, though they can be combined and used in “Dual-Light” mode with a middle-ground 850-lumen output.
It’s a unique, utilitarian design, made all the better by dual-fuel technology (rechargeable lithium-ion and CR123 battery compatibility), which darn-near eliminates all risk of being caught with a dead battery when things get hairy.
A Trusted Duty Light
Needless to say, the Nightstick USB-588XL has found its way out of my daily carry rotation and into my wife’s duty belt setup, where it should be.
She carries it daily, with her agency taking notice of its value and inherent trust among her fellow officers. And it does me well, knowing she’s much safer — that much more prepared — as she serves our country and our community.
Final Thoughts
So, yeah. It’s obvious that I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for Nightstick. But honestly, I think my appreciation for their products is more than just personal preference — it’s a matter of trust.
As a LEO spouse, there are an awful lot of “what ifs” that are just a part of daily life. And while we can’t control everything, knowing that my tough-as-nails wife has the best gear and training out there makes all the difference.
That said, I’ll close with this: As someone who knows how high the stakes are, I can’t express enough how much that means.
Nightstick products provide peace of mind. Their products have kept countless officers and first responders safe and brought them home to us, their loved ones, at the end of the day.
And it’s high time you got yourself one, methinks.
