Government announces £500k funding for law enforcement technologies

The government has today announced that it is providing £500k of funding for innovators developing law enforcement capabilities.

The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) has launched an innovation competition to develop new capabilities for police and law enforcement agencies to stop violent offenders from a distance.

The initiative, ‘Advancing Less Lethal Weapons’, is seeking proposals for technologies that can temporarily stop a violent or armed subject to prevent the escalation of conflict or destruction of property.

The proposed technologies would need to reach a distance of 50m to meet the police requirement while up to 70m could also meet potential military requirements.

The Accelerator document stated: “In armed, public order and conventional policing scenarios, officers can be required to use force to deal with a threat to the public, bystanders or police, from violent or armed individuals.

“The force used to counter the threat must be reasonable, proportionate, discriminatory and necessary in the circumstances.

“The availability of less lethal options can potentially enable officers to resolve a situation prior to it escalating to a level where firearms would otherwise have to be used.”