A netgun looks a bit like an oversized flashlight and shoots, or rather nets, from a distance of several meters. Compressed air from a CO2 cartridge shoots a nylon net at the other person, from which they can hardly free themselves. Dealers advertise that it is quiet, effective and above all not deadly. Animal rights activists in Germany use it to catch injured waterfowl or stray dogs, in countries like China, the police are experimenting with safety nets. Could they be the alternative to firearms?
It’s been three months since Mouhamed Dramé died. On August 8, the police were called to the garden of the St. Antonius youth facility in Dortmund. The 16-year-old was crouching against a wall, a kitchen knife in his hand, the tip pointed to his stomach, witnesses reported. Possibly with suicidal intent, Dramé fled from Senegal to Germany alone. The officers speak to him in Spanish, they don’t understand Dramé, then the situation escalates within seconds. The police officers attack him with pepper spray and tasers, when he starts to move, still with the knife in his hand, an officer fires his submachine gun, several shots hit the boy, he dies a short time later in the hospital.
Officials secure the place in Dortmund where a 16-year-old was shot by the police in August.
(Photo: Markus Wüllner/dpa)
Investigations are still underway as to how the operation could escalate. Meanwhile, there is a debate as to whether the police should fundamentally change anything in dealing with people in exceptional psychological situations. One problem is that there is hardly any research on the subject. the Southgerman newspaper Has different sources evaluated, according to which at least 133 people in Germany have been shot dead by police officers since 2010. Of these, at least 63 could have been mentally ill or suicidal or found themselves in an exceptional psychological situation.
It is also striking how often a knife was involved. According to the SZ evaluation, eight of nine people killed in 2022 had a stabbing weapon, in 2021 it was six out of eight people killed, and in 2020 it was 13 out of 15. The combination of an exceptional psychological situation and a stabbing weapon apparently leads to fatal police operations more often than average.
A gladiator fought with a net and a trident
A call to Florian Lahner. Lahner, 44, from Fürth is an operational trainer, he studied medicine and worked as a paramedic, but he is also familiar with self-defence, for more than 15 years he has been training police officers for dangerous operations. An attack with a knife does not require great strength or special skill, he explains. He considers the knife to be the “most effective weapon at close range”, and even with a pocket knife you can seriously injure someone. In operational training, police officers therefore learned that they may have to shoot if someone with a knife comes closer than seven meters.
How close is too close? Police shooting training in Munich with color markings.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
It takes about 1.5 seconds to cover this distance, which is how long it takes the police officer to draw his gun and shoot. Aiming at arms or legs in such a situation doesn’t work, says Lahner. Officials would therefore be trained to shoot at the middle of the body. This is the safest way to stop the opponent, but it can also be deadly.
If you ask Lahner about alternatives to firearms, he says: “A long machete.” Of course he doesn’t mean it that seriously, it’s hard to imagine German patrol officers with machetes, especially since it would take a lot of training to do so. A look at history shows how effective other weapons can be: the retiarius, a Roman gladiator, fought with a net and trident.
So why not equip German police officers with something like this?
Lahner is skeptical: “You can fire a lot of shots with the pistol in a short time.” With the Netgun, a new net has to be inserted after each shot and the CO2 cartridge changed, according to dealers this takes between 30 and 60 seconds when everything is ready. Possibly too long if someone approaches you with a knife in their hand. A Hamburg colleague, Markus von Hauff, who has been training federal police trainers for years, confirms this: In such a stressful situation, a police officer has to shoot four or five times to be sure that he hits the target effectively. Even Animal Rescue, which regularly uses Netguns, finds them too buggy to recommend for police use.
A netgun looks a bit like a large flashlight and has so far mainly been used by animal rights activists in Germany.
(Photo: Nixalite)
The two trainers also consider the modern version of the trident, a spacer bar with a fork at the front, to be too risky. The same applies to the shield, which is often seen at demonstrations. “The officer only has one chance, if the attacker takes a step to the side, it’s over,” says Lahner.
G-20 summit in Hamburg, police officers are deployed at demonstrations with signs.
(Photo: Joerg Boethling/imago images)
In addition, patrol officers already carry handcuffs, protective vests, pistols, radios, pepper spray and batons with them. A sign or a spacer bar could at most be transported in a car. “But police officers have to work with what they are carrying,” says Markus von Hauff. That’s why he also rules out chain mail.
“Freeze the situation, keep your distance, negotiate” – this is often the best tactic
The only real alternative, says Markus von Hauff, is the taser, i.e. an electric shock gun. A taser overrides the nervous system, blocks the transmission of electrical impulses to the muscles and incapacitates the opponent for several seconds. The taser is now being used across the board in the USA, in Germany a number of federal states are testing it, and in northern Germany in particular there are discussions about expanding its use. The police union GdP, for example, is in favor of this.
A police officer in North Rhine-Westphalia with a taser. Some federal states are currently testing the use and are considering equipping more officials with it.
(Photo: Tim Oelbermann/Imago)
“He closes the gap,” say supporters like Markus von Hauff. A taser is small, compact, you don’t need any force and you can threaten to use it, have several attempts. And it’s not deadly. Critics like the human rights organization Amnesty International warn against itthat the taser can lead to serious injuries or even death, especially in the case of previous illnesses that are difficult for emergency services to recognize. In addition, it is a fallacy that the taser is only used as a last resort. In the USA it has long since become the standard tool, not only at a distance but also in direct contact with the unarmed. And that’s where he’s so dangerous.
It is possible that the only real alternative when dealing with people in exceptional psychological situations is not another weapon, but: communication and de-escalation, at least when it is possible. “Freeze the situation, keep your distance, negotiate”, which is often the best tactic for martial artists Lahner. “The police don’t have to complete every operation in record time or find a solution,” he says. Sometimes something completely different helps more: wait and see.