DESPITE NORTH CAROLINA DEATH, CAPE POLICE USE PEPPER MACE

The 138th annual SEMO District Fair will mark the third anniversary of the use of pepper mace by Cape Girardeau police officers.

"It's one of the best tools offered to law enforcement personnel in a long time," said Officer Roger Fields. "It's a viable alternative to the use of force in a situation which could become threatening to myself or others in the area."

In the late summer of 1990, a few of the officers within the department submitted a proposal to the administration suggesting the department acquire and begin using pepper mace.

At the time, the only weapon officers carried aside from their sidearms, was a PR-24 a heavy plastic side-handled baton.

"The PR-24 is designed to bruise, break bones and tear cartilage," said Police Chief Howard Boyd Jr.

"Three years ago we were desperately searching for a non-lethal method to control people who want to fight," Boyd said. "I believe with the pepper mace, we've found the best possible alternative."

But last week, a North Carolina medical examiner determined that a man died as a result of being sprayed with pepper mace. The spray triggered bronchial spasms severe enough to kill Angelo Robinson, 24, of Concord, N.C.

Concord police stopped using the spray immediately. The North Carolina attorney general issued two pages of guidelines on the care of suspects who have been sprayed. Manufacturers were reportedly deluged with calls.

Robinson's was the first death officially linked to the substance, despite American Civil Liberties Union claims otherwise.

Not knowing the brand of pepper spray or the specific circumstances behind the North Carolina man's death, the Cape Girardeau police were not shaken by the news.

After the department opted to begin using the pepper spray three years ago, the company the department uses as its supplier came in to Cape Girardeau and certified several of its officers and administrative personnel as instructors for the pepper mace product.

After extensive lecturing and orientation to the pepper mace, the officers lined up at Fire Station No. 1, were sprayed in the face with the mace and were promptly hauled off to the shower facilities.

The spray a cayenne pepper extract in an oil base so that it sticks attacks the eyes and respiratory passages, causing a sensation some law enforcement personnel liken to "bobbing for french fries in hot oil."

Officer Ron Webb and Sgt. Brad Moore were among the officers who opted to go through the training.

"Your eyes immediately slam shut you have pry them open with your fingers to get cold water in them to flush the stuff out," Webb said of the mace. "Your lungs feel like you've just run a marathon you can't talk, you can't see, all you can do is listen."

Moore likened the experience to an intense sunburn, burning his face and chest, inside and out.

"I made the mistake of inhaling a bunch of it while I was trying to hold my breath and it felt like my lungs were on fire," Moore said. "All of the sudden I didn't know where I was; I just had to stand there, until they dragged me to the showers."

But one reason pepper mace is so widely used by law enforcement, is because it is an organic substance that leaves no trace of its presence once it has worn off or has been washed from the person's face.

"I had a little redness in my face the next day, but that was from rubbing my eyes," Moore said. "I'm walking testimony that you can live through the experience."

Webb added: "Besides, if I hit you in the leg with a PR-24, you're still going to be feeling it a week from now. With the pepper mace, it's gone in 30-40 minutes."

The police department has a facility in the garage where persons sprayed with mace can wash their faces for as long as they need. In addition, all officers are specially instructed on the proper treatment of the suspect after he has been maced.

"The key is to talk calmly to the person," said Lt. Dale Ratliff, one of the departmental instructors. "If you are calm and controlled throughout the situation, the person who was maced is more apt to calm down and listen to you."

Officers are also taught to monitor the prisoner closely until the effects of the mace have gone.

"The mace has been very beneficial to law enforcement," Ratliff said. "It has added a greater air of confidence to the officers in handling situations by themselves.

"It has also eliminated the need to take prisoners to the hospital to be treated for cuts and bruises inflicted during a scuffle with an officer or with a PR-24," he said.

Pepper mace is designed to instantly immobilize a subject who is sprayed. Webb said that he will spray a person who is becoming aggressive toward him from a few feet away, and then step out of the way.

"If you hit them in the eyes like you're supposed to, they can't see anymore," Webb said. "That gives me the chance to get out of the way, or to restrain the person."

Detective Jack Wimp added that in his experience as a patrolman, the pepper mace did not always work instantly, nor is it always effective with "mental cases."

"It's effectiveness can be directly correlated to how fast officers use it," Boyd explained. "If the person has been drinking or has controlled substances in their system, they might react slower; in the end, no one is immune."

Ratliff added some people have a higher threshold for the physical pain the mace causes, but cannot overcome its involuntary effect on the eyes.

Fields said that just reaching for the canister kept in a special holster on the officers gunbelts is enough to deter some from fighting.

"The word hit the street fast about this stuff," Fields said. "If I reach for the mace, people cover their faces or hold their breath."

Boyd said that the recent death in North Carolina caused by the pepper spray will not change his department's attitude toward its use.

"There is no perfect answer," Boyd said.

"The pepper mace has saved a lot of injury to prisoners and officers since we started to use it," he added. "We are pleased with the results and have no plan of discontinuing its use in the future."