Non-lethal lasso restraint being tested by Birmingham police
Birmingham Al September 18 2018
One of the latest crime-fighting tools – a lasso of sorts- is being evaluated by the Birmingham Police Department as another non-lethal option to stop a suspect who is fighting arrest.
The BolaWrap 100 is a hand-held remote restraint device that discharges an eight-foot bola-style Kevlar tether to entangle a suspect at a range of 10 to 25 feet. It looks much like an electric razor but sounds like handgun when fired.
It’s the newest device on the market and is touted as an alternative to “pain compliance” techniques such as pepper spray or a Taser stun gun. Proponents say it lessens the chance of injury or aggression.
“The whole idea here is to create better options for law enforcement so that we can take people into custody, even if it’s just a diversion, so that officers can come in and take them into custody without injury or harm, particularly if there is someone suffering from mental illness,” said Birmingham Police Chief Patrick Smith. “It’s very encouraging.”
Wrap Technologies Inc. on Monday demonstrated the BolaWrap to officers from Birmingham, Mountain Brook, Bessemer, Oxford and Lawson State.
Mike Rothans, senior vice president of Wrap Technologies and a former assistant sheriff with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, said cited several high-profile use of force examples that could have been better handled with the Spider-Man-like technique. One of those was 2017 incident in South Carolina where an 86-year-old man suffering from dementia was Tasered by police who were trying to keep him from getting hurt in traffic. The elderly man ended up hospitalized in intensive care with a brain bleed.
“As a profession,” Rothans said Monday, “we need to do better than this.”
The BolaWrap is propelled by a 9 mm blank. It cocks and has a safety, just like a real gun. A laser allows for more-precise aim, with the target being the legs and chest area. Developers say it fills the gap between verbal commands and pain compliance and is designed to be used early in a confrontation.
Several officers tested out the BolaWrap Monday, including Birmingham Police Academy Range Master Sgt. Bryan Shelton. He said the feel of deploying the device felt similar to firing a .22 pistol. He likes the idea of what it could provide officers in the field. “Any time we can use a less lethal option and preserve life, ” he said, “it’s always best for the department.”
Law enforcement agencies throughout the U.S. are testing the device. Birmingham is among two dozen departments doing internal testing. The others are in California, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Missouri, Florida, Illinois and New Jersey.
The BolaWrap is already being field tested by six agencies tested in Utah, Florida, Illinois, California and Georgia.
Smith said he is excited about the prospect of a new crime-fighting tool.
“One of the things that we have to do as law enforcement is search for better options and introduce best practices into law enforcement,” he said. “The main purpose of having them here is to introduce the product to our officers, see how we can incorporate it into what we do.”
“Often, we don’t have a choice who we come in contact with. We come in contact with people with mental illness. We come in contact with those who have an edge weapon, such as a knife,” he said. “So, we have to create opportunities where we can take them into custody, number one without being involved in use of force, doing something violent or the appearance of something violent.”
The chief said they will completely evaluate the product and see how it works in the field. “We’ll do some field testing and then then we’ll try to do what we can to incorporate it into our everyday activity if everything works out,” he said. “My initial impression is, and the reason I brought them here, in my past job was searching for best practices in law enforcement and, more important, find solutions that plague us all in law enforcement, such as use of force.”
“Birmingham police being the largest agency in Alabama, we have to bring other things to law enforcement and other law enforcement agencies,” he said. “This is a great step forward. This is one of many products we will be reviewing and incorporating into what we do.”
al.com
