RELEVANT
FOCUSED
READY

Long Range Less Lethal Weapons: Best Practices in Implementation
Daniel Haynes

Introduction

Less lethal weapons like TASERs, commonly used in law enforcement,
have a limited range of 30 feet. Long range less lethal weapons can
enable officers to safely apprehend suspects from a greater distance
than traditional less lethal options. This research project sought to
uncover long range less lethal weapons that are used across multiple
jurisdictions, and to determine best practices for the implementation
of long range less lethal weapons in law enforcement agencies that do
not have such options in place.

Discussion

Giving law enforcement officers access to long range less lethal
weapons could save lives. Officers would be more capable of
incapacitating dangerous suspects from a safe distance, likely reducing
the number of fatal police shootings. In addition to a likely reduction
in deaths, having long range less lethal weapons would probably
reduce the possibility of injury to both suspects and officers, because
officers would be able to subdue dangerous suspects from a safe
distance.

Conclusions and Recommendations

This research topic was inspired by a video taken from body camera
footage of police in the United States who were forced to fatally shoot
a suspect because they could not safely get close enough to use a
TASER. If those officers were equipped with a long ranges less lethal
weapon, perhaps the suspect would have survived the encounter.
With increasing public scrutiny around police shootings, long range
less lethal weapons provide a way to potentially reduce police use of
firearms against suspects in a way that does not jeopardize officer
safety.

Through my research, I found that more research needs to be
conducted on this topic. It appeared that most of the existing
academic research occurred in the early 2000’s. I also found that
many law enforcement agencies that have long range less lethal
options use projectile weapons like a bean bag shotgun. While the
shotgun is a good temporary solution, the rounds have potential to
cause lasting damage to their targets. Better options should be
researched. Along with more research, more less lethal weapons
should be developed. Through the research, it was found that there
are many types of less lethal weapons that have not been explored to
their full potential.

Methods

References

Results/Findings

de Freminville, H., Prat, N., Rongieras, F., & Voiglio, E. J. (2010). LessLethal Hybrid Ammunition Wounds: A Forensic Assessment
Introducing Bullet-Skin-Bone Entity. Journal of Forensic Sciences
(Wiley-Blackwell), 55(5), 1367-1370. doi:10.1111/j.15564029.2010.01431.

Background

Academic articles were selected, reviewed, and analyzed to
determine what types of long range less lethal weapons were in use
across multiple jurisdictions, and to seek out best practices for the
implementation of such weapons by law enforcement agencies. The
project used qualitative methods and inductive coding to find three
key themes across the literature. Due to scope constraints, the
research was limited to secondary data. Unfortunately, most of the
existing research was found to be over 10 years old.

My analysis found that less lethal weapons can be lethal or harmful in
many situations. I also found that it is important for law enforcement
officers to be educated about less lethal weapons, and that training in
those weapons is crucial. It is also very important for law enforcement
agencies to equip their officers with long range less lethal weapons at
all levels, and to do so quickly and efficiently. Finally, I found that law
enforcement officers need to have multiple less lethal weapon
options available to them, so they can adapt to different situations
and suspects.

Cummings, G.D. (October, 2002). Increasing Less-Lethal Options for
Patrol: What are The Legal and Moral Obligations for The Garland
Police Department and Other Agencies? Retrieved from:
https://shsuir.tdl.org/shsuir/bitstream/handle/20.500.11875/1213
/0825.pdf?sequence=1.

Downs, R. L. (2007). Less lethal Weapons: A Technologist's
Perspective. Policing: An International Journal, 30(3), 358.
Police Activity. (January 13, 2017). Domestic buse Suspect Gets Fatally
Shot by Fort Collins Police [video file]. Retrieved from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nL21QNmy-a4.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police. (October 3, 2017). Incident
management / intervention model. Retrieved from:
http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/en/incident-managementintervention-model-imim.
Voiglio, E. J., Frattini, B., Dörrzapf, J., Breteau, J., Miras, A., & Caillot, J.
(2004). Ballistic study of The SAPL GC27 gun: Is It really
”nonlethal"?. World Journal of Surgery, 28(4), 402-405.

Maximum Range
Bean Bag Shotgun: 65 Feet
TASER: 30 Feet
Royal Canadian Mounted Police. “Incident Management / Intervention Model”
[http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/en/incident-management-intervention-model-imim]

Bachelor of Law Enforcement Studies

Justice Institute of British Columbia

April 2018