'Nonlethal' guns causing alarm
Police departments across the country are turning to less lethal weapons, like the high-pressure pepper spray gun used in Boston on Lansdowne Street, to control crowds or dangerous suspects.
But the weapons are raising concern because they are sometimes doing exactly what they are designed not to, causing death or serious injuries.
Since 1999, the high-pressure guns that fire pepper spray or pepper-powder-filled plastic balls have been adopted by more than 2,500 of the nation's police departments.
"There is certainly a safe range for these, but they can cause irreversible damage," said Glenn Shwaery, director of the University of New Hampshire's Nonlethal Technology Innovation Center, speaking about nonlethal weapons in general. "It does give you an option between using nothing and lethal force, but the technology is not where we want it to be."
According to Commissioner Kathleen M. O'Toole, Boston police fired "projectiles designated to break upon impact, dosing the target with OC spray," referring to oleoresin capsicum, an extract of pepper plants that causes severe, burning pain, as well as wheezing and gagging.
The term nonlethal weapon is used for a class of devices designed to neutralize but not to kill their target.
A Boston police officer who is familiar with tactics and nonlethal weapons and who spoke on condition he not be identified, said grenadiers are trained to fire the so-called pepper balls at the chests of people because that allows a cloud of pepper spray to rise into the targets' faces. He said the pepper-spray-filled plastic balls are less accurate than some other nonlethal weapons and that the rounds sometimes curve in flight.
Boston Police officials did not specify the company that manufactured the pepper-filled ball used by Boston's force, but a spokesman for San Diego-based Pepperball Technologies confirmed yesterday that it sells guns and the pepper powder-filled balls to Boston Police.
The spokesman, director of marketing Chris Andrews, said the company would not comment on its products' use here until Boston police finish investigating the death of a young woman early yesterday.
The marble-sized Pepperballs travel about 300 feet per second. They shatter on impact, dispersing eye-stinging pepper powder.
"Our product saves lives," Andrews said. He said his company's product has never been known to cause a serious injury and does not have enough energy to pierce the skin or eyeball. "The best way to describe it is like a paintball but travels a little bit quicker and delivers pepper."
There is a second pepper product on the market that can fire with much more force and employs a spray of oleoresin capsicum, rather than a powder. FN Herstal company, which makes that product, could not be reached last night and it was not clear whether Boston police use it.
Police around the country have acquired thousands of these weapons, in an effort to avoid using guns or other types of lethal force.
No accurate statistics exist for any injuries from pepper-filled balls or other types of nonlethal weapons.
While the pepper powder has not caused great controversy, the spray has set off concerns in recent years. In 2000, the United Nations Committee against Torture criticized the United States for the misuse of pepper spray by local police forces. A federal appeals judge in San Francisco that year said OC spray may in some circumstances constitute "unreasonable use of force."
The problem, scientists say, is that police may not exercise the same restraint they would use with more lethal weapons, and that they may not be trained properly. One concern is that police may fire the weapons at too close a range and harm people who are frail or sensitive.
"One of the first things people point out when they critique this field is that the very term nonlethal is a misnomer," said Steven Aftergood, senior research analyst with the Federation of American Scientists who studies military nonlethal weaponry.
"Almost anything can be used to kill a person, and too many of these weapons lend themselves to overuse."
Manufacturers say it's safe to fire both OC spray balls and the powder balls at close range, even at a person touching the gun's muzzle, although they acknowledge that may result in severe bruising. Often police aim at a structure near their target, so the spray disperses over a crowd as the balls break apart.
Other than the pepperballs, Boston police also use beanbags, teabag-size projectiles filled with tiny lead pellets that are fired at far higher speeds than pepperballs.
It's unclear what other nonlethal weapons Boston police use. The department has a stockpile of stun grenades, rubber bullets, pepper spray, and tear gas that was acquired before the Democratic National Convention.
