A duty belt is designed to hold essential items like pouches, a flashlight, baton, and other tactical gear. When it's fitted to hold a gun, many people just call it a gun belt or tactical belt. A good duty belt should fit comfortably around your waist while you're fully dressed, meaning wearing pants with a belt through the loops, because the duty belt is meant to be worn around your inner belt. Your duty belt should also be thick and durable. Traditional duty belts were just thick leather belts, but over time, manufacturers started using lighter materials like basketweave leather or nylon webbing as construction material.
When you wear your duty belt, you should affix the duty belt to your inner belt using belt keepers, which are small fasteners that fit vertically around both belts. You're supposed to use belt keepers so your duty belt doesn't shift or move around. However, some prefer to wear suspenders for extra support (otherwise, you carry all the weight on your hips).
Duty belts are standard police gear for uniformed law enforcement officers, but the duty belt an officer wears depends on his or her department's uniform policies. However, many officers prefer wearing a nylon duty belt because it's durable, lightweight, and inexpensive. Additionally, nylon duty belts are easy to adjust and typically use a simple clip or hook and loop-style buckle.
It depends. Duty belts aren't just for law enforcement. Military personnel will wear battle belts to carry gear or extra pouches and competitive shooters, who often just wear shorts and a t-shirt, wear gun belts during competition. Check out our Battle Belt Buyer’s Guide to learn more about their uses and benefits.
You should wear a duty belt if you’re required to wear a lot of gear as part of your EDC. In that case, a duty belt comes in handy because you only have to position your gear the way you want it once, and then you can take it on and off when you need to. Otherwise, you're stuck adding and removing gear from the belt looped through your pants.
Shop online for high-quality duty belts from top brands like Blue Force Gear, Raptor Tactical, Safariland, and more. And while you're at it, don't forget about other duty gear like tactical vests, MOLLE pouches, and belt accessories. Get a new duty belt today from OpticsPlanet and get Free Shipping on most orders over $49!