TURLOCK, Calif. — Police officers at Stanislaus State University have a new option available when attempting to stop suspects, according to the school's police department.
Previously only equipped with tasers and firearms, the officers will now have non-lethal "40mm launchers."
The launchers fire sponge-tipped projectiles (pictured below) that are about the size of golf balls. Combined with high velocity, the spongy material is intended to hurt, but not cause permanent damage.
"Hits like you would be hit with a hardball from a baseball game," Chief Clint Strode said. "So it's not going to be lethal, or intended to be lethal."
"It is an alternative, again, it can be used in the same way that you might use a taser, where maybe lethal force isn't necessary," Strode said. "The whole idea is we're trying to avoid any encounters that end in a loss of life."
According to the university police department, a Taser requires an officer to be within 25 feet of a subject. The 40mm launcher is effective from as close as 5 feet and as far as 131 feet away.
The image below shows a full look at the launcher, projectile and loading process.
Stanislaus State University is the fourth Cal State to provide a non-lethal 40mm launcher to university police officers. CSU Northridge has had the launchers for several years and both Dominguez Hills and Bakersfield implemented them this spring. The CSU Critical Response Unit (CRU) completed a transition to the 40mm launchers in February.
Chief Strode said he hopes his officers never have to use the launchers, but incorporating them was a way to "create time and space" during an altercation.
Both of those aspects would allow officers to establish communication between suspects and officers before thinking to use lethal force, the department said.
The launchers will be secured and locked inside police patrol vehicles as patrol rifles currently are, the department said, adding that officers will only carry the launchers with them if they are dispatched to a call that may require them.
