THE ROLE OF NON-LETHAL WEAPONS IN PUBLIC SECURITY

After World War II, “human rights” became a very vital issue all over the world, and with the publication of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations at the end of 1948, the subject gained an international status. In this context, the level of power to be applied by law enforcement officers in preventing the incidents and the equipment they use have started to be discussed. Equipment called “non-lethal weapons - NLW” began to be used in mass actions to end the incidents by causing less harm to both activists and third parties who were not involved in the action. The primary purpose of using NLWs is to minimize the severe human consequences during the intervention process to deter individuals from participating in the actions and to minimize the damage. Although it is called a non-lethal weapon, some negative consequences can be encountered due to the wrong or disproportionate use of this equipment, which can undermine the trust of citizens, who are not directly related to the events, in the state and naturally, the law enforcement forces, and the countries’ prestige can lose. For this reason, it is necessary to know and teach the issues needed to effectively use non-lethal weapons that give new capabilities to law enforcement officers. This study aims to examine the non-lethal weapons used by law enforcement officers to investigate the legal regulations on these weapons and their ammunition at the international and national level and to provide basic information on the types of NLW and their use. The scarcity of academic studies on non-lethal weapons in the national literature increases the importance of this study. As a result of the research, it has been determined that the main way of harming people and the environment as little as possible in the process of intervention in social events is the conscious use of NLWs by law enforcement officials.