The Wedge It. Its everyday intended purpose is to be wedged under doors to keep them open, typically used by janitorial and custodial engineers while performing their essential duties. As a first responder, this tool can be a very useful, but usually overlooked. There have been many times that I have been out on the street during warrant service or conducting investigations and we have to pass through common doors to get to the desired location, but those doors locked behind us. Typically, we would use whatever we had on our vest to include a pen, business card or notepad to keep the door from closing all the way, which may not always work and can be unreliable. Locked doors between us and the rest of the team can be undesirable in some situations because we are cut off from back up units, support teams with additional tools and medical support if something were to happen. The Wedge It is a small plastic wedge with an eyelet and a U-shaped channel built into it. It can be wedged under doors to keep them open, or the U-shaped channel side can be dropped over a door hinge to keep a door ajar. They come in various colors so they can be discreet or highly visible, so we don’t forget them on scene.

An unorthodox use of the Wedge It, which I use almost daily, is for supporting the use of the ballistic shield. One could use 550 cord and a carabiner as a quick attach/detachment method when hooking the Wedge It to the MOLLE on your body armor or D-ring on your duty belt. Depending on the situation and the mission, you may be standing in a position with your shield for an extended period of time. The Wedge It used as a ballistic shield hook is a cheap and effective hack to being able to support the weight of the shield. The bottom edge of most ballistic shields will fit perfectly in the U-shaped channel. The 550 cord allows you to adjust the ride height of the shield to have it sit where it needs to be to properly provide ballistic protection. The shield can easily be removed to further wield and manipulate as necessary. Additional uses are for breaching, specifically gapping doors. Gapping a door creates a space to fit our pry tool between the door and door jam. When gapping a door with a pry tool, we want to capture the progress we made, so the Wedge It can be placed in the gap to perform that task. Although a metal wedge works better, the Wedge It will work in a pinch. It can easily be attached to a Halligan bar by 550 cord or bungee to be readily available.

-Ryan