ROANOKE, Va. (WSET) — A company says they have a product that can give officers another method of non-lethal force.
The company, Wrap Technologies, gave a demonstration to local police departments of their BolaWrap 100 at the Roanoke County Criminal Justice Training Academy on Monday.
The BolaWrap discharges an eight-foot kevlar cord at 640 feet per second and wraps around the subject – detaining them.
Donald De Lucca with Bola Wrap says this answers important questions law enforcement faces.
“How we use force? How we apply it? Is there a better way?” Donald De Lucca, chief strategy officer for Bola Wrap, said.
De Lucca, a retired police chief, says this is just one more method of non-lethal force.
“You would use it before you do anything that would cause pain,” he said.
And it’s a way to keep someone from hurting themselves and others.
“Mental health is a big issue for law enforcement – they say 25 to 40 percent of the people who are killed by law enforcement are in a mental crisis,” he said.
Here’s how it works; The officer enters a cartridge with the cord. They aim the laser, then turn off the safety and press a button. The cord wraps around the subject with hooks that attach to clothes from 10-25 away.
The firing mechanism costs $925 and each cartridge is $30. Officers say they’re less expensive than tasers.
“With a much lower risk of serious injury than perhaps some of the other tools that we have available,” Roanoke County Police Chief Howard Hall said.
Right now about 30 departments across the country use them.
Chief Hall said this could fill a gap.
“We’ve got a variety of force options from hands-on, physical force all the way up to deadly force – this seems like it may fill another piece of that,” Hall said.
Chief Hall said they still haven’t decided whether or not they want to add this technology to their department.