LEO Essays - Law Enforcement, Weapons, Police Weapons, Free Essays

LEO Essays - Law Enforcement, Weapons, Police Weapons, Free Essays Less lethal weapons in modern Law Enforcement For decades, the only weapons law enforcement had at its disposal were lethal weapons and physical force using a wooden night stick or baton. New less harmful or less lethal weapons were needed due to the ever increasing violence in our communities and the demand for better crime control, especially after the widespread scrutiny of law enforcement after highly publicized use of force incidents such as the arrest of Rodney King in Los Angeles. Less lethal weapons are defined as weapons that are intended to incapacitate a subject without causing permanent injuries or death while also inflicting minimal damage on surrounding environments. They are often also known as non-lethal weapons, but this is a false generalization as no weapon can be completely non-lethal even when used properly and cautiously.Any use of force by law enforcement can inherently involve a risk of death.The use of less lethal weapons can have physical and mental effects on the individual being subjected to them. The re are numerous factors concerning the environment and the subject when choosing the type of less lethal weapon to deploy. Less lethal weapons use in law enforcement is vital as they frequently are utilized with subjects who have not yet committed a crime, mentally unstable subjects, or those under the influence of an intoxicant. Officers must balance their use with what is accepted as reasonable force to avoid violating a subjects civil rights while, at the same time, satisfying the public that the least amount of force necessary was used. Many subjects use the judicial process to challenge the use of less lethal weapons. Some of the different categories of less lethal weapons available to law enforcement include: specialty impact munitions, distraction devices, chemical munitions, and conducted energy devices. Specialty impact munitions are well known in many forms including bean bags, pepper balls, or batons. The use of specialty impact munitions are intended to cause pain and sometimes sufficient blunt trauma to incapacitate a subject. Low energy specialty impact munitions are used for pain compliance, while high energy specialty impact munitions are used for incapacitation. Some degree of injury is expected to occur as it is necessary to achieve compliance or a momentary degree of incapacitation. The intent with specialty impact munitions is to minimize the amount of injury that is painful. In most instances, bruising is the only injury, however the possibility for further injuries can and have occured. Distraction devices are used to gain control to all physical and mental senses. Common distraction devices include teargas and flashbangs. Tear gas uses a combination of human safe chemicals to put the subject in an extremely uncomfortable environment. This encourages subjects it is used on to leave the area to a better suited area. Flashbangs use a bright flash compound that can temporarily hinder eyesight on subjects. Flashbangs also use gunpowder to emit a loud concussion that hinders hearing as well. This also puts the subject in a state of discomfort and encourages them to leave the area. In rare cases. A hot flash is a grenade type weapon that like teargas. Emits a gas that is human safe to discomfort the subject it is used on. However instead of a chemical reaction. These grenades use heat as the primary source of discomfort. The heat will last for usually around 50 milliseconds and causes the subjects to flee the area. One main cause is that breathing in such conditions is ha rder. However breathing is not impossible. Conducted Energy Devices are those that gain compliance by affecting the muscular system of the body. Common forms of this are tasers. Tasers utilize pulsing electric shocks to the body at roughly 5,000 volts to stun the muscular system. Although 5,000 seems to be overkill. 5,000 is nowhere near enough to cause serious harm on its own. The pulsing electricity causes the muscles in your body to seize and thus hindering anyone from fighting or attempting to leave. Compliance weapons have changed dramatically since the first implementation of batons in the 1950s. With new and innovative ways to either deescalate situations or subdue subjects.