Talking tops list of cops’ favorite techniques

Area law enforcement agencies have many less-than-lethal options

From Tasers to something like lasers, military and law enforcement personnel have a variety of non-lethal ordnances available to them in cases where “shoot to kill” doesn’t fit the bill.

Called anything from “less-than-lethal,” “less-lethal” and “compliance weapons,” to “non-deadly” and “pain-inducing weapons,” these options fill the gap between the simple act of engaging a suspect in conversation to an officer having to draw and pull the trigger on a firearm.

“If you’re in a situation where the use of force is necessary, you, as a law enforcement officer, have these options available to you,” said Capt. Carl Dondorfer with the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

But Dondorfer said officers in his department generally don’t engage suspects to the point at which stun guns, batons, pepper spray or gas grenades are necessary.

“To tell you the truth, we don’t use them that often. We’ve been fortunate enough that, when it comes down to it, our officers are, most often, able to de-escalate a critical situation by just talking,” Dondorfer said June 26 at the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

He added that, through the crisis intervention training most law enforcement officers undergo these days, it’s not often that patrol units working in his department have to employ anything other than logic.

“You really just have to evaluate the circumstances you’re presented with,” the captain said.

“Honestly, we have these tools available. But we don’t use them with any regularity.”

Although Euclid Police Department Public Information Officer Lt. Mitch Houser said his department doesn’t comment about its use of less-than-lethal options, he did indicate that Euclid police use them.

“Our agency does not prefer to speak in any detail about our tactical capabilities,” Houser typed in a June 21 e-mail exchange. “I will say that less-lethal options are an important part of our force continuum and that overall, their use has been very effective.”

Nonlethal options for law enforcement run the gamut from just talking someone out of a bad decision to the use of fire extinguisher-sized canisters of pepper spray and even tear gas. It all depends upon the situation.

“It’s not a cookie-cutter kind of thing,” Dondorfer said, adding that, depending upon the situation, an officer in his outfit may do anything from simply putting someone in handcuffs to using a Taser.

He said the officers who do carry that namebranded conducted electrical weapon undergo state-mandated training, at minimum, and must be certified before carrying them on the street.

Dondorfer also said it’s only through that training, and the critical thinking each officer employs when faced with the decision to use a nonlethal option, that they’re employed.

“Guys don’t make that decision lightly,” Dondorfer said.

Likewise, Chardon Police Chief Scott Niehus said officers in his department, and throughout Geauga County — have many decisions to make before employing less-lethal tactics and equipment.

“I like options,” Niehus said in an interview June 26. “And that’s because you never know what’s going ot happen.”

Niehus said each officer in his department is required to carry at least two non-lethal options on his/her tool-belt.

“Each and every option we carry has its own pros and cons to it,” he said.

For example, he said, a Taser cartridge costs about $35 a pop.

“It’s not an inexpensive tool,” he said.

But even beyond what it costs to train and use nonlethal options, police officers are limited to the options that they actually carry with them.

“Officers can’t use what they don’t have with them,” Niehus said.

And, he said, you only get one shot. So, with that in mind, the use of nonlethal equipment might even get an officer killed.

At the end of the day, nonlethal weapons like conducted electrical weapons (think Tasers), batons, foam direct-impact projectiles and grenades may help law enforcement officers keep the peace. But their main objective is to not have to use them in the first place.