Kinetic impact projectiles (KIPs) are bullet-like missiles used in various law enforcement contexts to deter through the pain of impact. Shot from firearms, these weapons were developed to emulate the effect of handheld baton strikes at greater physical distance.
The staggering variety of KIPs has led to an abundance of common trade names for what are often referred to as “baton rounds”. KIPs are often dubbed “rubber bullets” regardless of their composition: modern KIPs are most commonly made of plastic (“foam-tipped plastic bullets”, “plastic baton rounds”, “sponge grenades”, “Flashball rounds”), metal (“rubber-coated metal bullets”, “pellets”, “birdshot”, “flexible baton rounds”, “bean bag rounds”, “Super-Sock”) or other materials such as wood or rock salt.
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1880s
The development of KIPs for crowd control is deeply linked to the colonial policing of the British Empire.
Early forms of KIPs used in protests were sawn-off pieces of wooden broom handles that were shot at rioters in Singapore in the 1880s.
1960s
In the 1960s, slightly more advanced wooden bullets were developed by the United Kingdom …
… and used against protesters in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore.
1980–2020
Over the past 40 years, production of KIPs has spread from a few manufacturers in the United States and United Kingdom to dozens of producers throughout the world.
Manufacturers now develop more than 75 different types of bullets and launchers.
Today
Today, KIPs have found widespread use in both everyday policing and crowd control, as an addition to an arsenal that includes firearms, batons, chemical irritants and more.
The global less-lethal market was estimated at USD 867.4 million in 2019, and is expected to continue to grow well into the current decade.
Mechanism of action
A projectile weapon works by transferring kinetic energy (energy from movement) from an object in flight to a person. While lethal projectiles are constructed to maximize the likelihood of death by penetrating the skin to compromise vital organs, KIPs are ostensibly constructed in such a way as to minimize penetration while delivering sufficient kinetic energy to produce significant pain and/or incapacitate an individual.
In spite of design efforts to reduce lethality, KIPs can cause serious injury, permanent disability and death if they impact critical parts of the body with significant force. To avoid potentially lethal uses of KIPs, manufacturers often establish protocols to avoid circumstances in which KIPs could prove fatal.
First, as the velocity of a projectile is greatest as soon as it enters ballistic flight (immediately after it is fired), manufacturers often establish minimum distances for use to reduce the impact velocity of KIPs.
Second, manufacturers sometimes issue warnings that KIPs should never be shot at vital parts of the body such as the head. However, guidelines on targeting parts of the body tend to be contradictory, with some saying bullets should be aimed in the torso “box” between the clavicles and hips while others note that the upper torso should be avoided and bullets should be aimed towards the lower legs.
In spite of design efforts to reduce lethality, KIPs can cause serious injury, permanent disability and death if they impact critical parts of the body with significant force.
Health effects
The health impacts of KIPs depend on a number of factors, including the type of projectile, the characteristics of the weapon it is shot from, the distance from which the shot is fired, the user’s skill and the inherent imprecision of the weapon itself. Although KIPs are ostensibly designed to minimize penetration and limit the force of blunt trauma, injuries from both mechanisms are possible.
Most KIPs are propelled by a powder charge, and are best considered a subcategory of firearm. KIP injuries, like all trauma and specifically firearm injuries, can be non-penetrating, where the pellet does not enter the skin or tissue (such as blunt force trauma), or penetrating, where the pellet does enter (and, in the case of perforating injuries, also exits the tissue).
Both types of injury exist with KIPs, and both can cause devastating injuries. The severity of injury from bullets is dependent on the missile energy on impact (related to projectile mass, distance and muzzle velocity), the missile design (including calibre and shape) and the characteristics of the target tissue.
The findings of a systematic review of medical literature indicate that KIPs cause serious injury, disability and death. Our study identified 2,190 people with injuries from KIPs; at least 12 of these individuals died from their injuries, and 941 suffered permanent disabilities. Ocular injuries, which made up 1,568 of the injuries reported (72%), were notably higher than in the previous report (16%).
The data demonstrates that severe injuries are more likely when KIPs are fired at close range or when multi-projectile KIPs are used. From close range, some types of KIPs have the same ability to penetrate the skin as conventional live ammunition, and can be just as lethal. When launched or fired from afar, these weapons are inaccurate and strike vulnerable body parts, as well as causing unintended injuries to bystanders – especially when there are multiple projectiles scattering from one canister. Therefore, there are significant doubts that these weapons can be used in a manner that is simultaneously safe and effective in any crowd-control setting.
Case studies
What has changed?
Since the publication of the 2016 Lethal in Disguise report, the use of KIPs to suppress mass dissent has rapidly accelerated, with a corresponding increase in documentation of the resulting injuries.
Notable cases include life-threatening injuries to the face and eyes by Flash-Balls in France during the gilets jaunes protests of 2018–2020, a wave of ocular injuries from rubber buckshot during the Chilean protests of October 2019, extensive use of a wide variety of KIPs by police in response to the George Floyd protests in the United States, and hundreds of ocular injuries, some potentially life threatening, were documented during the protests of spring 2021 in Colombia.
The development and proliferation of novel “hybrid” weapons, which combine characteristics of KIPs with other less-lethal weapons, adds complexity to the assessment and treatment of injury from these weapons.
These include KIPs laced with chemical agents such as the Pepper Ball (with Agent OC within a frangible shell) and stun grenades, also known as distraction devices, with a kinetic component.
Weapons not designed to function as impact projectiles are increasingly seen being pressed into service as improvised KIPs.
Tear gas canisters, when fired directly at protesters, act as KIPs; however, they can be extraordinarily hazardous when used in this manner, as they are dense, metallic, large and often heated or mid-explosion.
