More law enforcement agencies are testing a new device that could become a less-lethal tool used to restrain suspects.
On Friday, Las Vegas-based Wrap Technologies made the BolaWrap 100 available for departments to have hands-on time with at the Buffalo Police Department gun range in Illinois, according to WFLD-TV.
The hand-held remote restraint device fires an eight-foot-long kevlar tether at a range of up to 25 feet. The company told the news station that the device is designed to restrain people who are unruly or uncooperative, without having to resort to deadly force.
"I think it's just another tool in the toolbox for officers when they're confronting perhaps a mentally ill person or a subject who wants to commit suicide," Buffalo Grove Police Chief Steve Casstevens said. "This might be a tool to help the officer control the subject."
The system is now in production and is being used by several law enforcement agencies in California.
"First impressions are good," Aurora Police Chief Kristen Ziman, whose only concern is the danger of the tether wrapping around a suspect's neck. "But there are some times where we are dealing with subjects who are going to resist arrest, and so we have to move into that force continuum. And this is an appropriate tool."
