Injuries Produced by Law Enforcement Use of Less Lethal Weapons

The ongoing NIJ funded Less Lethal Weapons (LLW) Study has been highly successful.Beginning as a prospective multicenter injury epidemiology study, it has now evolved into an ongoing LLW Incident Monitoring System. The nationwide network of law enforcement agencies / study sites gathers data on each LLW use, incorporates an third party physician review and assessment of injuries into the Use of Force review of each case, and submits the information to the central coordinating site at Wake Forest University for database entry and analysis. The manuscript detailing the injury epidemiology profile of Conducted Electrical Weapons (CEWs) used in real world conditions against criminal suspects [Annals of Emergency Medicine, April 2009] has made significant contributions to our knowledge, including that 99.75% of 1200 criminal suspects suffered no injuries or mild injuries only due to CEW use. With the recent addition of two new sites (Dallas, TX and Louisville, KY), the project continues to thrive. This application proposes two years of continued funding for the LLW Incident Monitoring System and a one year pilot of expanding prospective data collection to include injuries related to other forms of force. ca/ncf