Deterrence

Freeze! Stop or ill shoot! Run and ill shoot! Common lingo from the mouths of officers from everyone’s favorite T.V. show Cops. Lets ask ourselves the question, does pulling out a deadly weapon that will not be fired put the fear in criminal eyes? The answer is “No.” Criminals recognize that officer cannot fire their pistol even if they run from an officer. To obtain deterrence of fleeing from an officer, criminals must be aware of the penalty, perceive the consequences, and believe there is a risk for their actions. Stop or ill Tazer you! Stop resisting or ill pepper spray you! These are threats/actions that officers can perform. They propose clear penalties, offer consequences, and give a result to their criminals actions.

Rational Choice and Deterrence Theory

Crowd Control

Use of force is generally accepted as a nature of police work. Skolnick and Fyfe (1993) provide a scale for ascending actions where police should handle street situations; presence, persuasive verbalization, command verbalization, firm grips, pain compliance, impact technique, and deadly force. Less than lethal weapons can eliminate the last action presented, deadly force, as a crowd control option.
One of the toughest challenges of an officer is crowd control. With the growing amount of protestors, police are forced to conjure up new and effective ways of maintaining order. As a result of riots such as Rodney King riot, New York Draft riot, Watts riots, and many more, officer are forced to invest time and training with less than lethal crowd control weapons. Chemical agents, direct energy weapons, directed acoustic weapons are ideal for controlling large amounts of protestors. Each device having its own array of specialties that can and could have effectively brought an end to past and future crowd control issues.

Student's Death Returns Crowd Control to the Fore

List of Riots


Police Crowd Control Training

Rules of Engagement

Officers follow a strict use of force conduct for deploying less lethal weapons. A situation where a suspect is demonstrating combative or assault like behavior would be ideal for the use of a less lethal weapon. Officers assess their own situation based on their training and their better judgment, before making the decision to deploy a less lethal weapon. The environment and near by citizens are also contributing factors of deploying less lethal weapons. Officers use a utilitarian approach of right and wrong and weigh their actions depending on what they believe will bring about the best possible outcome. An outcome of a less combative suspect. Their decision to deploy the less lethal weapon must be weighed carefully, for officers are required to report every time a taser is used and are scrutinized if their one third of a second decision is not the correct one.



CBC News : Taser Faq's

Saving Lives

While many police officers are still getting comfortable with the idea of carrying less than lethal weapons (LLW), it is unarguable to dispute the lives the weapons are saving. Twenty years ago, if an officer had to un-holster a weapon to deal with an intoxicated individual, it may have ended in blood shed. These occurrences have been put in the past. No longer do innocent lives have to be taken because of the inebriated actions of drunken individuals attacking officers. And officers no longer have to share the burden of taking a father, brother, and son away from loved ones. The consequences of using a LLW over a deadly weapon brings about the best possible outcome, life.

An officers well being is also being spared with the use of LLW’s. Officers are no longer expected to detain an attacking offender with their bare hands or a night stick. With the use of oleoresin capsicum or pepper spray, officers can suspend an attackers advancement from 12 feet away. The attacker may feel discomfort from the LLW, but the cost of his own life or the life of the officer makes it priceless. One may dispute the ethical concern of the attacker stopping before the 12feet, but at what risk to the officer.

LLW’s also assist in preventing suicide by cop. If an individual attempts to provoke officers to kill him, deadly force is no longer the only option. Officers now have the alternative choice of using many different less lethal weapons. The most prevalent is the 12 gage shoot gun, loaded with a less than lethal bean bag. This weapon is effective from twenty one feet or greater. Ultimately, saving the life of the offender and leaving the officer out of harms way.

Comparative Study

Introduction

In the 1980's, police officers began to carry a less lethal weapon in form of mace, in conjunction with their already less lethal night stick. In 2008, less lethal weapons can now be found as pepper spray, electroshock, sticky foam, non-lethal rounds, acoustic devices, electromagnet radiation (not all carried by officers). Department of Defense describes less lethal weapons as "discriminate weapons that are explicitly designed and employed to incapacitate personnel or materiel, while minimizing fatalities and undesired damage to property and environment.” Less lethal weapons can cause contusions, concussions, loss of sight, superficial organ damage, and more. These may seem like serious injuries, but compared to an inevitable death, they are acceptable. The use of non - lethal technology is beneficial to law enforcement, corrections, and military professionals. These weapons are designed to save the lives of officers and their involved subjects.

This is an academic blog I am creating for my Criminal Justice 194: Contemporary Issues in Criminal Justice; at California State University Sacramento.