Police use of force describes the amount of force an officer must use to get an reluctant suspect to follow his or her orders. Deadly force resulted in serious injury to police, citizens, or both. Based on studies and research, the possibility of using less lethal weapons such as conducted energy devices (CEDs) such as tasers or oleoresin capsicum (OC), also known as pepper spray, has been suggested. It is believed that these less lethal weapons will reduce the number of injuries among police and citizens. The research was conducted to see if less lethal weapons caused fewer injuries, but still acted as an effective method in controlling resistant suspects. The purpose of this study was to test this belief or hypothesis that less lethal weapons will actually reduce the amount of injuries. to police forces and citizens in use of force events. While it appears that less lethal weapons are less harmful in use of force situations, other factors such as pre-existing health conditions and drug-related factors must be considered. If an individual suffering from asthma were to inhale the harmful toxins released in CO or pepper spray, they could become seriously ill or even die. A review of medical and medical records of suspects exposed to a CED shock during a 2-year period found that less than 1% sustained moderate injuries and only 1 suspect (0.1%) sustained severe injuries ( Kaminski, MacDonald , Smith 2009). While death is an unlikely outcome when using less lethal weapons, it is still very possible. Twelve police departments were involved in the study. All provided records of more than 24,380 police use-of-force incidents for which injuries to suspects and officers were documented. About sixty-two percent… half of the document… er, flu or not were not included in the documents collected by police departments. Therefore, the study does not take into account all the important factors of the case. It could not be determined with certainty whether the injury to a suspect was simply the result of a skin puncture from a CED or skin irritation from the OC spray. They were therefore coded as non-injuries. If all of these factors had been identified in the cases, the observed reduction in injury rates might have been greater. With some limitations to the findings, there may be more in-depth research in future studies. Some variables need to be adjusted in a subsequent analysis. Work Cited MacDonald, J. M., Kaminski, R. J., & Smith, M. R. (2009). The effect of less-lethal weapons on injuries in police use of force. Am J Public Health, 99(12), 2268-2274. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2009.159616