Sonic disablers or drone nets could help police take out suspects
‘The availability of less lethal options can potentially enable officers to resolve a situation prior to it escalating’
POLICE could be issued with new “less lethal” weapons to disable violent offenders on the move at distances of up to 50 metres under Home Office plans.
The department has launched a competition for defence and technology firms to develop weapons ranging from sonic disablers, pepper bombs and drones with nets to electronic pulses and low-speed projectiles.
The technology would plug the gap between Tasers, which can currently disable a suspect at up to 4.5m (15ft), and rubber bullets, which have a range of up to 40m but have been linked to injuries and even deaths.
Government scientists are overseeing the competition for a system that could “accurately, reliably and temporarily stop a violent or armed individual from causing harm with a primary focus on solutions for distances between 5m and 50m”.
The weapon should be sufficiently light and small to allow it to be carried on patrol, and it must be capable of being fired numerous times and in any weather condition.
Devices could be used to apprehend violent individuals or “temporarily neutralise” rioters.
The tender document includes suggested technologies that could be used in the weapons, although it says that the list is not exhaustive. They include acoustic, chemical irritant, directed energy, drone-based, electrical or kinetic-energy technologies.
“In armed, public order and conventional policing scenarios, officers can be required to use force to deal with a threat to the public, bystanders or police, from violent or armed individuals,” said the document.
“The force used to counter the threat must be reasonable, proportionate, discriminatory and necessary in the circumstances.
“The availability of less lethal options can potentially enable officers to resolve a situation prior to it escalating to a level where firearms would otherwise have to be used.”
The US has been developing similar weapons, including the Pepperball VKS launcher, which is effectively a supercharged paintball gun, that can fire projectiles filled with a powder derived from chilli. They burst on impact to produce a cloud that burns and stings the eyes, nose and mouth. Meanwhile, Harkind Dynamics, a US company, has developed a 12-gauge shotgun that can fire a projectile which slows down before impact by using a parachute braking system to minimise the risk of injury. It is known as Specter (Small arms Pulsed Electronic Tetanization at Extended Range).
Experts have said drones could be deployed with the ability to fire nets. Such devices are already being developed with the capability to shoot down other drones.