Page "Non-lethal weapon" Paragraph 14

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 ", and ricocheting the shot 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 cannons and fire trucks has remained an effective nonlethal tactic to disperse riots ).

Trained police dogs were also commonly used to scare and disperse rioters and apprehend individuals.

In the 1980s the development of the high-tensile plastics 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 rounds, 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.