Recent video coming out of Los Angeles, police needed to clear the street of people with regards to the COVID19 outbreak.
This video shows some really great options that the LAPD has at their disposal for less than lethal options. The first being the taser, which I’ve discussed in the past. I feel that the taser has a lot of shortcomings, namely repeatability and the reactionary gap. Taser deployments require two probes entering, or close to entering, a subjects body. If one or both don’t make positive contact, the affect will not be obtained. This creates an issue to me, as these deployments generally don’t favour proxemics of time + distance. With that considered, a taser is a great tool to have assuming it works as intended.
One option I’m in favour of is less than lethal shotguns. Shotguns with bean bag ammunition are repeatable, thus reducing the need to fully assess efficacy between deployments. The last thing any cop wants is to be saying “did that work” while a combative subject is bearing down on them. For that reason I like the ability to simply continue deploying the bean bags until the full effect is achieved.