Police or Spider-Man?

With 49 people killed last year after being shocked by tasers, police departments across the US are trying out a Spider-Man-like device.

Called Bolawrap, the device fires a 2.4m-long bola-style tether at a suspect to entangle his legs and prevent him from getting away.

"It's is a little bit larger than a cell phone and designed to fit easily onto a police belt.

The synthetic fibre tether exits the device at about 200m per second," said Mr Tom Smith, president of Wrap Technologies, which manufactures the Bolawrap device.