The county is giving all its patrol officers access to BolaWraps, which shoot Kevlar lassos to wrap up unruly subjects…
Full story: Fairfax County police to use Spider-Man-like lassos to subdue suspects
Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice, Appalachian State University
Is this a valid and realistic way to stop a suspect? As interesting and possibly useful this idea may be, I just can’t quite imagine it would work that well. Looking at it on the person they use as an example of it’s function, it looks too thin and flimsy to stop a person from getting out. Depending on if the hooks are strong enough to hold onto the clothing, someone could easily get out; Not by ripping it off of course but struggling enough to loosen it. I would just need to wait and see the results after maybe a year or so before I would think of implementing it into my department.
How can we increase the amount of options officers have to subdue a suspect without using deadly force? I really like that people are actively coming up with solutions to the use-of-deadly force issue. I find it very frustrating that the police have to worry about their image. In the article, someone mentioned that have three to four officers trying to cuff one suspect looks bad. What most people don’t consider is that that suspect could have taken a large dosage of drugs and/or having a psychotic episode and it takes multiple officers to restrain said person. I think that using this gadget would be very beneficial.