A recent incident involving a suicidal subject armed with a knife resulted in disarming the individual with less lethal weapons preventing the use of deadly force. As a result of this incident and a debriefing with the officers involved, the Round Lake Park Police Department has taken another step in the direction of attempting to eliminate fatal encounters, by training and equipping all of our officers with bean bag shotguns.
With so many controversial shooting deaths involving law enforcement personnel, a growing number of law enforcement agencies are looking for ways to eliminate fatal encounters between officers and citizens. Police officers often find themselves in dangerous and difficult situations and they must be able to protect themselves and those they have sworn to protect. Many law enforcement agencies are arming themselves with bean bag shotguns. The rounds fired from these guns can take down an assailant but usually don’t result in a fatality.
Accredited policies and expert training by nationally certified in-house instructors is essential to insuring the appropriate use of these less lethal weapons. The goal is to avoid a confrontation that leads to a death. These guns fire a bean bag round that is not made to penetrate a person. Officers are trained to target large muscle groups on the person they are firing at while trying avoid the neck, head and other sensitive parts of the body. Officers want to avoid a lethal result. By targeting the large muscle groups, the intended results are to cause pain that stops the hostile behavior rather than death.
A bean bag round is a small fabric pillow that is filled with No. 9 lead shot that weighs about 1.4 ounces. It is usually fired from a 12-gauge shotgun and expelled about 250 to 300 feet per second. It spreads out in flight and distributes its impact over an approximate one inch area of the target. The bean bag round is designed to deliver a blow that will cause minimum long-term trauma and not penetration to the body. It will result in a muscle spasm to stop a potentially violent suspect. Recent innovations have meant a change from a square shape to a rounded sock-shaped projectile.
The bean bag guns are used in specific situations and provide an officer with a valuable tool that can be used to avoid a lethal response. Officers are currently equipped with Tasers and pepper spray. This is just one more option they have as opposed to having to use lethal force. It is not a danger to an officer but it gives one more option to gain compliance without a lethal option.
Dangerous encounters are unpredictable and could escalate very rapidly. Relying on assistance from neighboring agencies has been an option and recently resulted in a successful resolution with no injuries involving an individual armed with a knife. Seconds could mean the difference between a life and death encounter.
The Round Lake Park Police Department has started to deploy less lethal shotguns insuring this option is immediately available to all officers.
