
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, March 7, 1994                   TAG: 9403070025
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PEPPER SPRAY SAFE, POLICE SAY

Pepper spray is an effective weapon that doesn't kill, a police group says - even though at least 30 suspects have died after being sprayed.

The International Association of Chiefs of Police examined 22 of the deaths and found that pepper spray wasn't a factor in any of them, said John Granfield, who supervised the project.

"I think it's definitely a good tool in law enforcement," said Granfield, a former police chief in Fairfax County. "There's a lot less need with pepper spray to have the physical kind of confrontation that causes injuries."

Pepper spray contains a cayenne pepper extract in an oil base. It restricts breathing, and is used by police to subdue unruly suspects.

Some police groups question pepper spray's effectiveness. Others, including the American Civil Liberties Union, call it a deadly weapon.

Last week, the ACLU in Los Angeles documented 14 California fatalities involving people who had been sprayed. Even if pepper spray wasn't the cause of death, autopsy results show it was a factor, said Allan Parachini, director of public affairs for the ACLU in Southern California. The ACLU urged the Los Angeles Police Department to curtail its use of pepper spray until more research is done.

But the police chiefs' study concluded that pepper spray is an effective way to subdue violent criminals, and insisted it is more humane than wielding a night stick.

The study, part of larger examination paid for with a $240,000 Justice Department grant, covered 1990 to 1993. It has not been released, but Granfield discussed the findings in an interview last week.

Granfield said that 30 cases were found through news reports, information from the association's 13,000 members, and other sources.

Most deaths occurred from "positional asphyxia," meaning that police restrained the suspects in a way that restricted their breathing, Granfield said. This is also a common cause of death in cases not involving pepper spray, he said.

For example, suspects who are hog-tied sometimes suffocate if their bellies are pushed into their chest cavity.

by CNB