Risk Management of Less Lethal Options

R. T. Wyant has been a forensic scientist since 1994 and currently supervises the forensic firearms unit at the Washington State Patrol-Seattle crime laboratory. He is court-qualified in firearm/tool identification, crime scene analysis, less lethal devices, and trajectory reconstruction. He has developed testing protocols for CEW (conducted electrical weapon), OC-pepper spray, and less lethal impact munitions. Wyant's testing and analysis procedures have been adopted by other crime laboratories and manufacturers. He has established foundational criteria for the admissibility of forensic TASER evidence under the Frye standard. His testing protocols have been presented to agencies, SWAT teams, and attorneys in the US and abroad including the UK, Canada, Australia, Belgium, and the Netherlands.Tom Burns has worked as an officer with the Seattle Police Department since 1989. During that time, he has been assigned to patrol, anticrime team, SWAT, and a proactive bicycle patrol unit. During his tenure in SWAT, he was a member of the chemical agent/less lethal cadre and was cadre leader for two years. He developed the concepts for the chemical agent response teams (CART) and was a lead instructor for the WTO riots in Seattle in 1999. Tom has also helped develop patrol level protocols for addressing Excited Delirium Syndrome (ExDs).