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In British Columbia, police have been ‘peppering’ their suspects not
with gunshot but with a spray made of cayenne pepper extract. Trials using
the spray on rowdy or even dangerous suspects have been so successful that
the British Columbia Police Commission (a citizen’s advisory review body)
is now recommending it as an effective alternative to physical force.

Oleoresin capsicum, an extract of cayenne pepper, is the key ingredient
of the spray. According to David Edgar, chairman of the British Columbia
Police Commission, the effect is ‘like putting hot pepper in your eye’.
The extract inflames the membranes around the eyes, nose, mouth and throat
which irritates the tisue and causes a burning sensation.

‘Although it doesn’t affect your breathing, you get the sensation that
it has,’ Edgar says. ‘The combination of the pain and inflammation cause
you to go to ground immediately, to put your hands down and find out where
you are and try to deal with this pain and distraction that has suddenly
hit you.’

Its effect on assailants is striking, Edgar reports: ‘Certainly in all
the tests I have seen, if you’re holding a knife or a gun, you tend to drop
it, and you become very compliant. Then you can easily be handcuffed and
taken under control.’

The burning sensation lasts for two or three minutes but the overall
sensation can last for up to 30 minutes. But, Edgar says, in all the tests
they have done and seen done, there are no lasting side effects.

A group of 37 volunteer officers from seven police forces in British
Columbia took part in trials of the capsicum spray, opting to clip the 13-centimetre-high
spray canister onto their belts. In six months they used the spray 104 times
in a variety of situations, including arrests, domestic disputes, fights,
rowdy parties and to disarm suspects carrying dangerous weapons.

In over 93 per cent of the cases the officers reported the spray as
‘totally effective for use to incapacitate a suspect’, and rated the test
results as ‘extremely successful’. ‘It is quite terrific,’ Edgar says. ‘We
did it because we wanted to know what the alternatives were to firing. There
have been situations where people were deranged and they had knives and
they wouldn’t put them down. They ended up being shot, and we felt there
must be a better way.’