SHELBYVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – The Shelbyville Police Department is one of several Kentucky law enforcement agencies among hundreds across the country testing a new de-escalation device.
Byrna HD (Home Defense), a legal, non-lethal self-defense weapon looks like a pistol. It holds and fires five .68 caliber hard kinetic rounds or chemical irritant rounds, like pepper spray and tear gas, using CO2 and is designed to burst on impact.
Shelbyville Police Chief Bruce Gentry said the Department is committed to the protection of life, and he believes the Byrna device will be effective when officers are faced with an immediate threat or worse.
“It also gives us more reaction time,” said Gentry. “If someone were to come at us with certain objects like a knife or a bat, it gives us another option besides a Taser.”
Unlike pepper spray or Tasers, the Byrna provides a shooting distance of up to 60 feet.
Weapon is Co2 powered
During a demonstration and training session, Gentry experienced the impact of the CO2-fired non-lethal weapon during a demonstration.
"It's kind of twofold,” said Gentry. “It gives you an impact. It'll stop you; it'll stun you, maybe for a fraction of a second,” Gentry said about the projectiles that released a small, yet powerful cloud of powder around his upper torso and face.
Nearly 140 law enforcement agencies across the United States, including Frankfort and Simpsonville police departments, use the non-lethal weapon.
Shelbyville's training, like many others, lets officers see the pros and cons of the device.
Josh Schirard, a decorated police veteran who spent the last 17 years as a South Texas Police officer, has gained opportunities to work in patrol, training, and leadership, before becoming Byrna’s Director of Training Law Enforcement.
Byrna Law Enforcement and Public Safety division along with Ops Supply at the Kentucky Association of Chiefs of Police conference Thursday, July 22, 2021.
“Law enforcement is a very tumultuous field right now in a very tumultuous time.” Said Schirard. “By going to a company like Byrna Technologies I realized that I could extend that leadership and extend my desires to help these men and women who put their lives on the line every day.”
Schirard says it’s important to remember that less-lethal technology has been around since the beginning of policing.
“Back in the 1950’s when you started to see municipal policing, police officers were issued a baton,” he said. “It wasn’t until the turn of the century that we really started seeing police departments getting issued guns on the regular so in the roots of policing the public is really embedded in less-lethal means.”
Shelbyville police has been utilizing non-lethal defense tactics for several years, including the martial art of jiu-jitsu. Gentry says the police department will soon have a new training room, which is under construction, inside the police department where new non-lethal trainings will take place.
“We’ve balanced out our training to where the majority of our training is not firearms,” said Gentry. “We do more defense tactics than we do with firearms.”
The department trains quarterly, according to Gentry.
Schirard said the Byrna adds to the options police departments across the country are exploring, and it's quickly becoming a shop for law enforcement.
“Providing officers with options, so that they don't get to that point where they just run out of options and have no other option then to use deadly force, said Schirard. “It doesn’t matter how righteous or justified a shooting is. There is no such thing as a good shoot. Nobody wants that as the outcome. If we can provide those options to police officers before they have to go there, that’s a win.”
Gentry says the 8-hour training session and officer usage are both cost effective. Another non-lethal skill; another tool in police officer’s duty belt.
"This gives us one more option to go to,” said Gentry.
More About Byrna:
The company was founded on March 1, 2005 and is headquartered in Andover, MA. Its sales office is located in Las Vegas, NV and its production facilities are in Fort Wayne, IN.
“One of things that puts us above the rest is our ability to take a bunch of feedback from law enforcement officers and put that in to future products," said Schirard.
To learn more about Byrna Technologies Inc.’s Byrna HD and its line of non-lethal self-defense products click here.
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