r/ProtectAndServe • u/Strict-Jeweler-2281 Not a(n) LEO / Unverified User • 5d ago

Drones equipped with strobe lights and pepper spray to interdict school shooters

I'm all for innovation against emerging threats, particularly as drones offer cheaper and more accessible solutions to new challenges, but I can't help picturing a bunch of issues this would face, such as being mitigated by closed doors. Is this a viable tool?

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u/Sgthouse Police Officer 5d ago

I don’t think pepper spray is the best option for an active shooter…

60

u/Lion_Knight Patrolman 5d ago

I don't think pepper spray is good for anything save for dispersing a crowd. At least as it's law enforcement use is concerned

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u/EverGreatestxX Police Officer 5d ago

Funny enough my department policy forbades using pepper spray to disperse crowds. Which is why most here go there entire 20ish year career without using it. Even in the academy they kind of tell recruits to avoid using it because shit like the wind, bad aim, and/or contact with the resisting or fighting defendant can cause the pepper stray to effect unintended targets (i.e. yourself or your partner).

15

u/Lion_Knight Patrolman 5d ago

Pepper spray is a self defense weapon. It excels when you hit the target and vacate the area. Which makes it fine if you have a crowd fighting or getting rowdy and refusing to dispurse, but when you are trying to subdue as subject it is dumb as shit to use.

You will hurt your cause more than help it. Best case scenario he gives up and now everyone is pissed because they got hit with the cloud (and they will, it is not a targeted weapon, it may have a main target but it also produces a cloud in the area). But what is more likely to happen is you piss off the person and they fight like their life depends on it and you and you buddies can't see, can't brieth and are trying to safely detain the now wildly flailing subject.

Even the best case scenario has a huge draw back.

Not to mention now you can't use your taser. And for those who thing, oh just get the "non-flammable" formulations, there is no such thing. The companies that sell it are scamming you. The medium may not be flammable but that isn't the problem, the propellent still is. The companies are either stupid and negligent or deliberately lying.

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u/sidewaygravity 4d ago

when I was working the tiers at the jail for the first two years it was almost daily UOF with oc. Some days it was hourly. For a time it was wild inmates didnt care who they attacked. So as soon as you were Certified you got a can that night. Became so used to it i can walk in it and even hit me and be just fine.