Law enforcement officials carry various weapons including clubs, sprays, and guns. Some weapons are only issued under specific circumstances, and their use varies by jurisdiction. Less-lethal weapons like electroshock devices aim to temporarily incapacitate individuals. Excessive use of force can result in legal consequences.
Police and other law enforcement officials usually carry guns. These could include clubs, knives, sprays or guns. Almost every weapon in existence has been used at some point in history in a law enforcement capacity. The types of weapons carried and used by police in specific contexts vary from place to place.
In most countries, some weapons are only issued to the police under specific circumstances. There are many countries, for example, where weapons aren’t carried by city police on a regular patrol, but might be assigned to a SWAT team planning a raid on a group of potentially armed criminals. Other examples include weapons that are only used in riot control.
Clubs are among the most common law enforcement weapons. There are several alternative names for this weapon, including cudgel, baton, bludgeon, cudgel, truncheon, and Billy club. A mace is an impact weapon and one of the oldest and simplest weapons in all law enforcement agencies. It is classified as a less-lethal or non-lethal weapon. The latter expression is not descriptive in terms of the weapon’s capabilities, since a person can be clubbed to death, but refers more to its authorized use in law enforcement.
Other typical less lethal weapons include sprays such as mace or pepper spray, also called OC spray. These sprays are usually stored in small portable containers and sprayed into a criminal’s eyes. A close relative, tear gas, can be released into a crowd. These sprays cause pain and inhibit vision. In many countries they can be purchased in stores for self-defense purposes, but in some places they are illegal to use except as weapons for law enforcement.
Law enforcement electroshock weapons are also typically rated less lethal. Some of these weapons, such as an electric prod, are used in close proximity; others, such as stun belts that deliver shocks to the wearer via remote control and tasers that fire electrodes attached to wires, are used remotely. The common feature of all electroshock weapons is that they aim to temporarily incapacitate the person against whom they are used. Other weapons designed to incapacitate someone in this way include a bean bag or rubber bullets fired from a handgun.
The availability of these common and any less common weapons in law enforcement depends on the jurisdiction. Likewise, what is considered appropriate law enforcement weapon use also differs. When a legal system convicts an official of excessive use of force, that force often includes unnecessary application of his weapons.
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