Police are often faced with a situation in which a person struggling with mental illness or high on drugs presents a threat to the safety of others or themselves. If only there was a way to take them down without using lethal force.
There soon may be if new technology being tested in Illinois gets put into routine use.
Officers from several suburban precincts gathered last week at the Buffalo Grove Police Department to test a new tool called the “BolaWrap.” Las Vegas-based Wrap Technologies showed off a hand-held device that shoots out an 8-foot Kevlar tether from as far to 25 feet — wrapping up a dangerous person without the use of lethal 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. This might be a tool to help the officer control the subject,” Steve Casstevens, Buffalo Grove Police Chief, told Fox 32.
The station reports that the “BolaWrap” costs $800 dollars and each tether cartridge is $30 bucks. It’s just gone into production and is being used by a few law enforcement agencies in California.
“First impressions are good,” said Aurora Police Chief Kristen Ziman.
Ziman explained that her only concerns about the technology are the danger of the tether wrapping around the target’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,” Ziman said.
The cord comes out at 900 feet per second! See the video on how it works below: