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UK: Durham to get baton guns

01 September 1998

Durham constabulary are to buy baton guns which fire solid four inches long polyurethane rubber rounds. They come in addition to the recent issue of CS sprays and extendible truncheons and would represent a considerable expansion of the police arsenal. The weapons, described as "non-lethal", would be used in "pre-planned operations to deal with an armed suspect" and not in public order situations according to Durham police. It is the second force to purchase the weapons, the first was West Mercia. However, a recent report, by the Belfast-based Committee on the Administration of Justice, concluded that baton rounds (plastic bullets) are "lethal weapons" and that their use in Northern Ireland, where they have killed 14 people in public order situations, was inconsistent with the international principle of minimum force. The report warns that they "appear to have become a weapon of first resort", and that current guidelines for their use are "much too weak" and are often ignored.

Durham Constabulary, press release 28.7.98; Committee on the Administration of Justice, "Plastic bullets: a briefing paper" (June) 1998.