Editing Non-lethal weapon (section)

===Police===
{{More citations needed section|date=July 2012}}
Until the development of non-lethal weapons, police officers around the world had few if any non-lethal options for riot control. Common tactics used by police that were intended to be non-lethal or less lethal included a slowly advancing wall of men with batons, officers on horses trained to deal with policing situations, or a charge into a riot using the flats of sabers. Other reasonably successful approaches included shotguns with lower-powered cartridges, "salt shells", using [[Bean bag round|bean-bag rounds]] and ricocheting shots off of the ground. In the mid-20th century, with the integration of fire-control systems into major cities, police found that high-pressure fire hoses could be effective in dispersing a crowd (the use of [[water cannon]]s and [[fire truck]]s has remained an effective non-lethal tactic to disperse riots). Trained [[police dog]]s were also commonly used to scare and disperse rioters and apprehend individuals. In the 1980s the development of high-tensile plastics like [[Kevlar]] and [[Lexan]] revolutionized [[personal armor]] and shields, and led to new tactics for riot squads and other special-purpose teams. Officers could now stand up against violent rioters throwing dangerous projectiles without having to resort to lethal methods to quickly disperse the danger.  Coupled with the introduction of effective non-lethal chemical agents such as [[tear gas]] and offensive-odor canisters, and non-lethal impact rounds such as [[rubber bullets]] and "bean bag" [[flexible baton round]]s, riot tactics were modified to rely less on violent response to attacking rioters than on a return to the slowly advancing wall, with supporting officers firing non-lethal ordnance into the crowd to discourage advance.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}}

Police officers on patrol were traditionally armed with batons or pistols or both, and non-lethal methods of subduing an attacker centered on hand-fighting techniques such as [[jujutsu]] and baton use. In the 1980s and 1990s officers began deploying non-lethal personal sidearms such as [[pepper spray]]s, and eventually [[electroshock weapon]]s such as [[taser]]s, which were developed for use by police and also found a market in [[Self-defense (theory)|self-defense]] by private citizens. However, these weapons were developed for non-lethal resolution of one-on-one conflicts.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}}

During the 1990s and early 2000s (decade), interest in various other forms of less-than-lethal weapons for military and police use rose. Amongst other factors, the use of less-than-lethal weapons may be legal under international law and treaty in situations where weapons such as aerosol sprays or gases defined as chemical are not.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}}

Between the years of 1987–1990, after a three-year field study by the FBI's Firearms Training Unit; In 1990, the use of oleoresin capsicum was approved and used by the FBI, the first official law enforcement agency to do so.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}}

In the late 1990s and early 2000s (decade), police began to adopt a new pepper spray delivery system based on the equipment used in [[paintball]]. A specialized paintball, called a "pepperball", is filled with liquid or powdered [[capsaicin]], the active ingredient in pepper spray, and is propelled by compressed gas using a paintball marker similar to those used for the sport but operating at a higher pressure. The impact of the capsule is immediately painful (a pepperball's shell is thicker than a standard paintball and is fired at a higher velocity), and it breaks open on impact, dispersing the capsaicin with similar effect to aerosol-delivered pepper spray.  However, to be most effective, pepper spray must contact the eyes, nose, or mouth of the target; pepper spray on clothing or tougher skin has a much reduced effect.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}}<gallery class="center">
File:Soundweapon1.jpg|Long range acoustic device mounted on police vehicle, 2004 Republican National Convention, New York City
File:Kravallpolis.jpg|Swedish police in riot gear, carrying an extended telescopic baton
File:Taser-x26.jpg|A Taser X26 making an electrical arc between its two electrodes
File:US Navy 020821-N-8252B-003 During training, a U.S. Navy Master At Arms is sprayed with Oleoresin Capsicum, a non-lethal form of pepper spray for use in riot control.jpg|Pepper spray training
File:Exploded tear gas can on the fly.jpg|Exploded tear gas canister in the air
</gallery>