Police face shortage of handcuffs as manufacturer shuts up shop / Times, 30 June 2008
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article4237515.ece
Sean O'Neill
"Police officers may have to be a little more restrained about restraining prisoners, because of a looming shortage of handcuffs. The company that makes cuffs for the majority of Britain's police forces is closing down this week, prompting something of a short-term supply problem. Hiatt & Company, which has been making handcuffs, leg-irons, manacles and other gruesome devices to shackle humans for more than 200 years, will shut its Birmingham workshops within days."