Article content continued

The product has its limits. While it could subdue an armed suspect from a distance in a hostage or standoff situation, it probably wouldn’t be useful during sudden confrontations, said Toby Wishard, sheriff in Codington County, South Dakota, whose department bought the projectiles several months ago but hasn’t used them yet.

“This product is not practical to carry on a belt. You’d have to have the time to get it into place; then the opportunity would have to present itself for you to use it,” Wishard said. “I look at it as more of a specialized tool.”

The projectiles, with an average price of $25, carry a variety of payloads, including a powder used in pepper spray, marker rounds used to identify riot agitators and a malodorant that smells like sewage.

Other companies are also marketing less-lethal alternatives, including:

— A 12-gauge, two-shot launcher pistol that can fire beanbags, pepper spray and gas pellets, made by Bruzer Less Lethal International, in Elkhart, Indiana. The product has drawn interest because it is smaller than a shotgun and can be used to force inmates out of a cell or suspects out of a car. “It’s like wasp-spraying; you hit the nest and the bees or the wasps come out,” said company founder Tommy Teach.

— A gun attachment that slows down bullets, maintaining enough force to knock someone down but reducing the potential for death, made by Alternative Ballistics, a company outside San Diego.

Critics argue the alternatives are merely a stopgap to a much bigger problem.

“I’m for less militarization of the police, but the main problem and the main deterrent for these different incidents of police violence is holding the police accountable,” said Brock Satter, an organizer for Boston-based Mass Action Against Police Brutality.

“I don’t think most of these situations are accidents. These are incidents of abuse of power and racism,” he said. “To me, that’s not a problem you can solve just by using a different weapon.”

(the above is from the Associated Press)