In the face of a national civil rights movement over the shooting of unarmed civilians, police forces all over the US are testing a weapon designed to lasso fleeing suspects with a Kevlar rope.
Developed two years ago, the BolaWrap is slightly larger than a television remote and boasts laser sights and a range of 25 feet.
It fires like a handgun, shooting out an 8ft length of rope at 640ft per second. The rope is weighted on either end with hooks designed to catch hold of a suspect’s clothes as they wrap around his legs or torso.
In New York, where it was tested recently by the Yonkers police department, it prompted comparisons to one of the devices carried on the utility belt of