New Report On Pepper Spray
A new report, “The Effectiveness and Safety of Pepper Spray,” includes two studies which investigate the incidence of injuries to police officers and suspects when pepper spray was used, and the deaths that occurred during or after arrests that involved the use of pepper spray.
The study that focused on reported injuries looked at three police jurisdictions in North Carolina and found that after the introduction of pepper spray the number of injuries sustained by officers and suspects declined, along with the number of complaints about use of excessive force.
In the study focusing on deaths occurring after the use of pepper spray, which was conducted by the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, two fatalities were attributed to the direct use of pepper spray, but both suspects also had asthma.
Other deaths involved suspects whose drug use, disease, or asphyxia related to positioning contributed to their death.
The report concluded that there was no compelling evidence that the use of pepper spray resulted in more deaths, and pointed to the fact that every arrest situation is different and cannot be accounted for in a laboratory setting.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from Police and Security News (08/03) Vol. 19, No. 4, P. 57; Siuru, Bill.
