A key principal of ergonomics is fitting the job or the tool to the person, but what happens when the tool has to be powerful enough to deter crime but also fit a wide range of workers? For police officers in Durham, North Carolina, that means getting weapons that are more precisely-sized to the officers.
By law, police officers in North Carolina are required to qualify with their weapons each year, but Durham officers with smaller hands were having some difficulties with weapon accuracy. That, reported the Durham Sun-Herald, triggered the ordering of smaller, but equally as powerful, weapons for smaller department members.
“If the gun is not fit to the person as a shooter, especially under great stress when they are firing the gun, accuracy is going to suffer in a big way,” Ken Cooper, founder and director of New York-based Tactical Handgun Training, told the Durham Sun-Herald. Supplying weapons that fit the officers ultimately benefits everyone’s safety.
Fitting gear to workers in physical jobs like police work, however, can be quite a task. Not only is size a consideration, but in a job where safety can hinge on communications, heavy gear and knowledge, a large amount of equipment needs to be readily accessible. Ultimately, this equipment can present a problem