Citation

Sheppard KG, Welsh BC. Aggress. Violent Behav. 2022; 64: e101748.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.avb.2022.101748

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Less-than-lethal weapons, such as conductive energy devices (CEDs) and chemical sprays, have proliferated across law enforcement agencies over the past 30 years. This study reports on the findings of the first systematic review of the effects of police use of less-than-lethal weapons on citizen and officer harm. Following Campbell Collaboration guidelines, we used rigorous criteria for inclusion of studies, comprehensive search strategies to identify eligible studies, and a detailed protocol for coding key study characteristics. A total of three experimental and quasi-experimental studies and an additional nine pre-post studies were identified and analyzed.

FINDINGS indicate that less-than-lethal weapons, in particular, CEDs, represent a promising technique in reducing citizen and officer harm, with effects being more consistent for officer safety. There is a need for higher quality evaluations of police use of less-than-lethal weapons to help inform policy and practice in reducing harm during violent police-citizen encounters. Future evaluations should draw on the innovative methods of prior studies. Future evaluations also need to incorporate measures of race and ethnicity to examine if potential benefits of less-than-lethal weapons extend to all groups. Police agencies considering adopting, continuing, or expanding the use of these weapons should proceed cautiously, taking into consideration the best available research evidence and the need to maintain rigorous academy and in-service training.

Language: en

Keywords

Less-than-lethal weapons; Officer safety; Police use of force; Systematic review