Originally Posted by
Tommy
I wondered about that, and former cop flatmate reckoned it was a holding charge usually. Ie, they upgrade to more serious stuff later, as it takes care to do it all correctly and not cock it up, resulting in Joe Scumbag going free. Holding on a serious charge but not THE most serious stuff he's up for, this buys them time to get it right/collect evidence/statements/all that carry on.
I watched a presentation on "less-lethal munitions" once, and the emphasis was that less lethal was the idea. You can die from all sorts of things, and those things still have a good chance of killing you, and also of maiming the fuck out of you too.