Injuries Produced by Law Enforcement Use of Less-Lethal Weapons: A Prospective Multicenter Trial

This prospective multicenter trial involves 12 law-enforcement agencies across the nation that utilize less lethal kinetic impact munitions and electrical incapacitation devices. Currently 9 agencies are collecting data with the remaining three in the approval stage. This study will utilize a tactical physician affiliated with the law enforcement agency to review each case, which may include medical records retrieved by the agency as part of its use of force investigation and reporting process. The site investigator / physician identifies and classifies any injuries sustained due to LLW use, completes the case report form and submits the form to the central study site. The central study site database will be analyzed to determine the percentage of suspects who suffer injuries after less lethal weapon deployment, and the severity of those injuries.
ca/ncf

The continuation of the LLW Study will provide for an additional year of data collection using the ongoing study design. This will expand the project to an anticipated number of well over 1000 real-world uses of conducted energy weapons (CEW) and kinetic impact projectiles. The size and strength of this database is unprecedented and should allow for multiple subset analyses after the planned primary analysis describing the injury epidemiology associated with each weapon class. Also, a pilot study will be conducted that will demonstrate metabolic and electrocardiographic changes over time in a group of subjects who have been exposed to a CEW during their apprehension and arrest. These suspects will be admitted to the hospital for observation and serial laboratory testing. In an IRB-reviewed study the subjects' clinical and laboratory data will be collected and compared to similar subjects that were not exposed to a CEW. This is the first time such data has been captured among real-world suspects and is expected to produce new information regarding the effects of illicit drugs, fleeing and physical struggling with police, conducted energy weapons, physical fitness and medical conditions, and other factors that cannot be replicated in laboratory or volunteer settings.

nca/ncf

The continuation of the Less Lethal Weapons (LLW) LLW Study will provide for an additional year of data collection using the ongoing study design. This will expand the project to an anticipated number of well over 1000 real-world uses of conducted energy weapons (CEW) and kinetic impact projectiles. The size and strength of this database is unprecedented and should allow for multiple subset analyses after the planned primary analysis describing the injury epidemiology associated with each weapon class. Also, a pilot study will be conducted that will demonstrate metabolic and electrocardiographic changes over time in a group of subjects who have been exposed to a CEW during their apprehension and arrest. These suspects will be admitted to the hospital for observation and serial laboratory testing. In an IRB-reviewed study the subjects' clinical and laboratory data will be collected and compared to similar subjects that were not exposed to a CEW. This is the first time such data has been captured among real-world suspects and is expected to produce new information regarding the effects of illicit drugs, fleeing and physical struggling with police, conducted energy weapons, physical fitness and medical conditions, and other factors that cannot be replicated in laboratory or volunteer settings.

nca/ncf