Article co-author Peters wrote a book about the use of large flashlights as defensive weapons
LAAW International, Inc. Articles
http://www.laaw.com/flashlte.htm
"But is wasn't until Donald Keller, then a Deputy Sheriff with the Los Angeles (CA) County Sheriff's Department, invented the heavy-duty "Kel-Lite" that the issue of flashlights and force came into its own. By his own admission, Don Keller said that he invented the heavy-duty flashlight primarily as a defensive tool, and secondarily as an illumination device."
When he lived in Ca, a veteran I knew was friendly with street hardened police. He was told that at night, the officers were likely to have a large torch in their hands rather than a baton or firearm. If, for instance, a lowlight car stop escalated into a life and death situation, the cop could ring that flashlight off the threat's skull more swiftly than he could draw another weapon.
Some years back, I found an online Philadelphia Daily News article discussing that city's switch from large to small, light torches to deter beatings and lawsuites. There are still expensive beatings and lawsuites. I suppose "flashglight control" for the police was as ineffective as "gun control" for the people has turned out to be.
Jeff