Here is an interesting nightstick from the museum’s collection.
It is made of a solid, hard, plastic-like substance with a silver metal tip.
This nightstick was issued to Minneapolis Police Officers for a time in the 1970s.
On the positive side, the metal tip was useful for breaking windows in lock-outs and in other situations.
On the negative side, the nightstick was very sensitive to all but mild temperatures.
Retired Minneapolis Police Officers who used this type of nightstick in the 1970s have shared that if the weather was below freezing, which is not unusual in Minneapolis, and they hit the nightstick against something, it would shatter.
In the summer, if an officer placed the nightstick between the squad car’s cage bar and the interior roof, or if an officer left it out too long in the sun, it would soften and bend.
After a good try with this new kind of nightstick, the Department returned to issuing the wooden version.