Yes. A foam baton round, bean bag, or rubber bullet is still force, and when an officer fires one at someone who poses no immediate threat, that can be excessive force under the Fourth Amendment and California law. You can bring a civil rights claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and state law for your injuries and the violation of your rights.
I have been suing the police since 1984, and I will tell you what the agencies will not: the word “less-lethal” is a public-relations term, not a medical one. A 40-millimeter foam round to the face does not know it is supposed to be less lethal. It fractures eye sockets, blinds people in one eye, and shatters teeth. I have watched departments fire these things into crowds and then describe the people they hit as if they were the problem. The label is designed to make a dangerous weapon sound gentle, so that when it maims someone, the public shrugs.
What does California law say about police use of “less-lethal” force?
The standard comes from the Fourth Amendment and is the same one used for any force: was it objectively reasonable? Under Graham v. Connor, courts weigh the severity of the suspected crime, whether the person posed an immediate threat, and whether they were actively resisting or fleeing. California’s Penal Code § 835a adds that force must be necessary.
The U.S. Supreme Court set the framework in Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386 (1989), holding that police force is judged by what a reasonable officer would do, not by hindsight. (Cornell LII) The three Graham factors are not abstract. A person standing on a sidewalk recording the police, or walking away from a protest with their hands up, has committed no serious crime, poses no immediate threat, and is not resisting. Fire a hard round at that person and you have, in plain terms, used force that was not reasonable.
California then went further than the federal floor. Penal Code § 835a, as strengthened by Assembly Bill 392 in 2019, tells officers that deadly force must be necessary and that they have a duty to consider de-escalation. (California Legislative Information) And in 2025, the Supreme Court in Barnes v. Felix instructed courts to examine the whole encounter, including the officer’s own conduct in the moments leading up to the use of force, rather than freezing the analysis at the final second. That matters, because the officer who creates the chaos should not get to point at the chaos as his excuse.
When is a rubber bullet or bean bag round considered excessive force?
It becomes excessive force when the person hit was not an immediate threat. Most agencies’ own policies forbid firing these rounds at someone’s head, neck, or groin, and forbid firing indiscriminately into a crowd. When officers break their own rules and strike a peaceful or retreating person, that is strong evidence the force was unreasonable.
Here is the part the police do not advertise: their own training and written policy already tell a jury most of what it needs to know. Less-lethal launchers are supposed to be aimed at the lower body, used against a specific person who is an active threat, and never sprayed into a crowd of people who are standing, recording, or walking away. When a department violates the very policy it wrote, the “officer’s safety” justification starts to collapse. I have cross-examined enough officers to know that the policy manual they were trained on is often the best witness against them.
Southern California has produced a steady stream of these cases. In April 2026, a federal jury awarded $11.8 million to a man permanently blinded in one eye by an LAPD less-lethal munition fired into a crowd. (Davis Vanguard) Earlier in 2026, residents who were shot in the head and face during protests against federal immigration enforcement filed civil rights suits against the City and County of Los Angeles, alleging the agencies fired indiscriminately and without dispersal warnings. (Davis Vanguard) These are not freak accidents. They are the predictable result of treating a dangerous weapon as if it were harmless.
What should you do if you were hit by a police projectile?
Get medical care and document the injury, photograph the wounds, save your clothing unwashed, write down the date, time, location, and agency, identify witnesses, preserve any video, and call a civil rights attorney before giving any statement. The first hours and days matter more than people realize.
Take these steps as soon as you safely can:
- Get medical care and make sure the injury is documented in the records.
- Photograph every wound, and keep photographing as it heals.
- Save your clothing unwashed and in a bag.
- Write down the date, time, location, and agency while it is fresh.
- Identify witnesses and preserve any video, including livestreams.
- Call a civil rights attorney before giving any statement.
Let me be blunt about evidence, because it wins these cases. The projectile itself, the bruise pattern, and the medical imaging often tell the story better than any officer’s report ever will. Body-worn camera footage and the agency’s own use-of-force logs are gold, but they have a way of disappearing if no one demands them in time. The sooner a lawyer sends a litigation hold and a preservation letter, the better your odds of seeing the footage that the department would rather you never see.
There is also a deadline trap that catches good people. If your case involves a city, county, or other public entity in California, you generally must file a written government tort claim within six months of the incident before you can sue for many state-law damages. Miss that window and you can lose otherwise strong claims. Do not let that clock run out while you are recovering.
I represent people across Southern California who were hurt this way, from Los Angeles to Orange County and beyond. If the police shot you with one of these rounds and you were not a threat, you may have a real case, and you should not have to face a city attorney’s office alone. Call my office for a free, confidential evaluation.
Steering Law is a California-based civil rights and criminal defense firm led by Jerry L. Steering, Esq. The firm focuses on police misconduct cases, including excessive force, false arrest, malicious prosecution, contempt of cop incidents, and 42 U.S.C. §1983 civil rights actions, while also handling serious criminal defense matters. Steering Law is dedicated to protecting clients’ constitutional rights and delivering justice for individuals who have been wronged by law enforcement.
