Do police sometimes use paintball guns?

Question

I thought i saw this before(it was a search warrant video!) this time i'm just watching cops and the officer is holding what looks to be a tippman 98 subduing someone, can anyone explain more on this, i can't find anything about it on google, thanks!

Answer 1

I've never heard of it and my Dad was a cop and my friend is in the force.  Maybe it is a new tactic.  I would argue that tasers and bean bag rounds would be more effective than paintballs at subduing someone.

Answer 2

YES they do

Answer 3

on their days off yes

Answer 4

I assume on duty, off duty I shoot allot of paint.

Pepperballs are a bit harder than paintballs. In fact some are hard plastic half shells, filled with a PABA powder and snapped together. I ahev also seen runs of regular paintball shell with PABA in them. They also fly at a higher speed, like 320 FPS.

They work on impact pain, it really hurts, and the sting of the pepper product on the skin/face. The guns are regular paintball markers, relabeled to Pepperball Inc. They really dont like it when you point that out to them BTW.

When they came to my department I had my M-98, 'cocker, and Ion sitting in my car. They refused to admit they were using a Tippmann product. Also the hoppers were PMI hopped with Pepperball logo on it.

I was unimpressed with the accuracy of the pepperball. Also it was hot out, the balls were sticking together in the hoppper and would not feed. (I know that was going to happen, they said it was a bad batch of balls and wouldnt happen again...yea right)

http://www.pepperball.com/

We ended up with the FN303, also made from paintball (its a Automag valve)

Answer 5

ive seen them use something like a paintball gun but instead of paintballs they were pepperballs. looked almost the same but there wasnt paint in those balls

Answer 6

Yes, there is a "Less than lethal" practice of using "Pepperballs".  They are gelatin capsules filled with essentially pepper spray.  They can be shot out of any paintball gun (Of the proper caliber).

Answer 7

In East Podunk, KY we use paintball guns to literally "paint" suspects with indelible orange ink so when they go out in public everyone knows who the bad guys are.  The local ACLU is trying to fight this sort of thing in court, but all of our citizens think its a great idea.  It takes about two weeks for the ink to finally wear off, but until then you can plainly see thugs walking around the streets with orange ink splotches on their bodies.  It's very cool!