Police forces around the world are routinely issued with batons, i.e. expandable batons at their disposal. However, in my country (Australia) and in some countries, I have seen physical confrontations (hand to hand) where police officers have immediately resorted to OC/pepper spray or in the US, Tasers.

Could someone with a policing background or experience explain why officers are not instructed to use their batons which I think are the most least used equipment in an officer's arsenal?

Edited August 14, 201114 yr by Mage25

I have no policing background, but I would think it is because pepper spray and Tasers are proven non-lethal (if used properly and responsibly), but batons could do damage that might result in the police getting sued.

Here in US Officers don't have batons.

Imagine this like Sniper said:

Tazer: Just a puncture wound where the tazer stuck into your skin, and just some non-lethal shocks to immobilize you.

Baton: You hit him in the head and you could cause a trauma that could leave the person in a wheelchair forever, or in a leg or arm and break it.

All three are considered less lethal (OC, baton and taser). However, batons leave much more fysical damage as mentioned before which lead to more police brutality complaints. However, most officers prefer to have all three with them just in case. Both the taser and OC are weapons which can fail to deploy. This is a disadvantage that the old batons don't have. (Although an ASP baton does have to be deployed)

Also, batons are still commonly used in riots since the large numbers of offenders can't all be tased or sprayed.

As the above people said, I think the baton would be the weapon able to do most damage to someone. A taser or spray of pepperspray would hurt insane, but won't cause any lasting health issues (excluding rare cases). I'm not sure though.

Because batons hurt more..

Mainly do to the fact that OC spray and Tazers can be deployed from a distance, making the officer much safer. In addition, a baton requires you use precise amounts of force, or else you could seriously hurt someone. One wrong move and your suspects in a coma and your out of a job. In addition, tazers have way more control over a suspect then batons. A baton will just give you an edge in hand to hand combat, but is pretty useless if your 5'5'' and your suspect is 7'2''. Tazers can be fired again and again once the suspect is pronged, and 500,000 volts will drop anyone on there ass.

Thanks for all the posts!