Immigration and Customs Enforcement shops for less-lethal armaments

PepperBall Technologies of San Diego (headquartered in Fort Wayne, Indiana) has received a sole-source $498,970 contract from the federal government's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the investigative unit of Homeland Security, to provide pepper-ball launchers, according to Government Security News.

The projectiles will be used largely for training purposes. The agency said the San Diego company is the only firm capable of providing the launchers and projectiles at the required level of quality.

Pepper-ball projectiles have been used by several branches of government when an attack with a deadly weapon is unwarranted. However, there has been a lot of controversy about the misuse of pepper-ball projectiles, particularly during the Occupy demonstrations that began in 2011.