While law enforcement across the country is investing in more and more firepower to fight ever more heavily armed criminals, the Chicago Police Department is considering a new weapon:
Beanbags.
And net guns, and sticky foam, and a battery of less lethal weaponry that once would have been more likely in a James Bond movie than on the streets of a large city.
Police in Chicago are turning toward a less-is-more philosophy, aimed at dealing with situations where heavy artillery is not the best option.
So far, state law has forbidden law enforcement officers to fire any projectile–even one like a tiny pellet-filled beanbag, which can knock an offender over but will not penetrate the skin–unless there is an imminent danger to themselves or innocent bystanders.
Meanwhile, engineers were developing less dangerous weapons that police could not use because of that statute. Now, a law taking effect Jan. 1 will make it possible for Illinois police departments to take advantage of the new technology.
It will allow local police to use several of the less lethal weapons without meeting the imminent-danger standard, which remains in place for standard bullets and shotgun shells.
“We teach our police how to use a gun, but we don’t arm them with the latest technology that is available,” said Chicago Police Supt. Matt Rodriguez. “They have to make decisions that may affect their career and their life, and we want them to have all options available.”
These days those options are many, as a glimpse through the U.S. Justice Department’s National Law Enforcement Technology Center bulletin clearly shows.
Some of the weapons now being offered to law enforcement agencies were originally designed for military use but are now heralded as ways for police to subdue suspects without serious injury in situations that do not call for a full-scale shootout.
There are those beanbag shells, little bags of bird shot blasted from shotguns at a speed of 320 feet per second, that will disable a person but not pierce the skin.
There is a launcher that fires a net to ensnare an attacking or fleeing felon.
There is restraining foam, a sticky, tacky, tenacious material, stored under pressure, that expands 30 times when sprayed and entangles a suspect in goop.
There is an “auto arrester” system that can stop a car by burning out critical electric components of the ignition system with a short blast of electric energy.
There is a vehicle-tagging system that shoots a projectile containing a radio transmitter that sticks to a car with polymer adhesive, allowing police to track the car and avert dangerous chases.
There are retractable spike barriers to be placed in the path of a a car to puncture its tires.
There are pulsing strobe lights that temporarily impair vision, requiring the officer to wear special protective goggles.
Of those, only the beanbag projectiles are being given serious consideration by Chicago police.
They hope the projectiles will reduce injuries to police and suspects in situations where officers now must use their hands or their nightsticks.
“Whatever the situation, we are charged with restoring order,” said Sgt. Frank Cascio, one of a dozen Chicago police officers assigned to study the new weaponry. “We want to bridge the gap between the use of the officers’ hands and their gun.”
“We want to the ensure the safety of both the officers and the arrestee, and still get the job done,” said Lt. Barbara Frost, who headed the group.
To some extent, that goes against the national trend.
“Nationwide, departments are getting more lethal weapons,” said Paul Jenkins, Chicago police spokesman. “They say, `We need more firepower.’ We are saying we want to go the other way.”
Not all of the less lethal weapons will end up in Chicago squad cars. Though some look attractive in the catalog, they may not do the job on the street.
“After using that sticky goop, you still have to handcuff the guy,” said John Doherty, a retired police captain and now an assistant professor of criminal justice at Marist College in New York.
“Some of the weapons are practical, but some are nonsense,” he said. “A primary thing is to have training so police officers are as familiar with them as they are with their firearm.”
Cascio agreed and said tools such as the flying net and sticky goop will not be on the department’s shopping list until they prove their worth elsewhere.
“We are not going to be a testing ground,” Cascio said. “We want people to come to us with a finished product.”
The beanbags, though, seem to be a perfect compromise between high-powered rifles and hand-to-hand combat in certain situations.
Chicago plans to use two sizes: one fired from a standard 12-gauge shotgun and a larger one fired from a 37 mm launching system.
“They are the most accurate systems that we have found,” Frost said.
On the firing range of the Harrison Area police headquarters, 3151 W. Harrison St., Officer Rich Mancha recently loaded a bright yellow Remington 12-gauge shotgun with two green shells and took aim.
Mancha fired two shots with perfect precision. The beanbags hit the paper target solidly but without penetrating the heavy rubber backstop that is similar to a truck’s mudflap.
Each of the 1 1/2-inch-square cloth bags contained 1 1/2 ounces of buckshot and traveled at about a quarter of the speed of a normal bullet. If the paper target had been a human, he or she would have been disabled but not dead.
“It’s like being hit by a baseball going 90 m.p.h.,” Lt. Fred Bosse said. “You can seriously injure someone with this. That is the reason that we always aim for the area below the waist, and stay away from the head or upper body.”
The change in the law to allow less lethal ammunition was sponsored by state Sen. Walter Dudycz (R-Chicago), a Chicago police detective, at the request of Rodriguez.
“The statutes did not allow us to use (beanbag bullets) because they were projectiles fired by gunpowder,” Rodriguez said.
Situations where less lethal weapons might be used are fairly common, Frost said.
“Let’s say we have a man in his office,” she said. “He is threatening to kill himself, but there is no immediate danger to anybody else, and he has got a machete. To take him down, they have to go up close to him, and that is going to endanger (the officers’) lives. Now we can shoot a beanbag round and not endanger the officers’ lives and save this guy from himself.”
