What happens when officers use force to de-escalate a situation? This question is currently driving conversations across council chambers and briefing rooms nationwide as law enforcement leadership faces unprecedented scrutiny. In May 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark 9-0 decision in Barnes v. Felix, rejecting the narrow “moment-of-threat” doctrine. Courts must now assess “all the relevant circumstances,” including events leading up to the use of force. This fundamentally expands the frame through which officers’ decisions are judged.
Existing tools are also under examination. Specifically, traditional verbal commands, chemical sprays, batons, Conducted Energy Weapons (CEWs), and firearms leave a critical tactical gap in the middle.
This gap between verbal direction and hands-on control is where careers end, lawsuits begin, and community trust dissolves. According to the Stanford Center for Racial Justice, with no single federal standard governing use-of-force policy, 18,000 local agencies operate under a fragmented regulatory patchwork, creating severe vulnerability—and the cost is high.
For example, Fort Lauderdale spent an average of $275,000 per year on police misconduct settlements between 2011 and 2019, and this is 61% higher than that of other police departments (tracked by the Police Funding Database). Overall, the 25 largest U.S. police departments spent over $3.2 billion on misconduct settlements over the past decade, with excessive force leading the payouts, according to data from The Washington Post and the Police Brutality Center.
The FBI's national use-of-force data consistently cites a “failure to comply with verbal commands” as the primary trigger for force incidents. Previously, there was a huge gap between failed dialogue and unjustified pain-compliant force. But Wrap’s Non-Lethal Response (NLR)™ system now fills this gap. Using sight, sound, and sensation when necessary, this complete ecosystem integrates tools, training, and policy to safely de-escalate a situation. Across 1,000+ global agencies, there has been a 55% reduction in injuries with the WRAP NLR System.
Following Barnes v. Felix, documenting proactive, non-escalatory contact is legally imperative. The liability landscape has fundamentally shifted. Forward-thinking executives are already addressing what their toolkit lacks and what that gap will cost them next time an officer runs out of options. Non-Lethal Response is the answer.