I don’t know about you, but every time I hear stories about police brutality, I ask myself the question: "How many guys get in trouble with the police while they’re sitting at home watching television with their wives?" None that I can think of.

Criminals do sometimes get hurt while getting arrested, but most reports of "police brutality" are cleared after investigation as "unfounded."

Cops are always looking for new ways to subdue arrested subjects without injuring them. A professor of criminal justice at an eastern university recently said, "Today’s police officer has basically the same instruments at his or her disposal as Wyatt Earp did 120 years ago." We all agree, cops need newer and better toys for catching crooks.

Law enforcement has tried everything from rubber bullets to shotgun-fired bean bags and stun guns. There’s even a gun that fires a pellet loaded with "sticky stuff." With a single blast, a criminal is coated with an adhesive material so powerful the perp can’t run because his legs stick together. The "sticky stuff" idea failed too, probably because the cops laughed so hard they couldn’t finish the paperwork.

Enter "Webshot," a spider-like net made of Kevlar. The web is shot from a special gun that propels it toward the subject at 65 miles per hour. "It’s so fast the bad guy doesn’t have time to react," says an engineer for the manufacturer. Spiderman has been doing that same thing in comic books since the fifties. Why not real cops?

Webshot is nonlethal and entangles a suspect long enough to allow police to subdue and handcuff him. Does it work well enough for law enforcement to put it in their everyday tool chest? We don’t know yet, but 20 police agencies around the world are giving it a test run. Everybody agrees that Webshot makes a lot less mess than getting slimed with a pint of "sticky stuff."