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In my book there is violent protesting throughout the city. Peacekeepers have been called to quell any acts of violence, but there are rebels amongst the crowd that attack and kill peacekeepers when they find an opening, then disperse into the crowd again. The peacekeepers can’t just open fire into the crowd so the government designs a sonic weapon for crowd control. From what I have looked into audio frequencies can be used in a Non-Lethal way.

So what I was planning to do was a radar dish like device mounted on an armoured vehicle, (only under attack) would they set the audio frequency to disorientate e.g: your inner ear that effects your balance, muscle control over your body or your nervous system (an extreme form of vertigo and dizziness) in large crowds so that they are incapacitated or unable to get away.

So what I’m asking is this: What weapon would give these desired effects?

The rules to the device are as follows:

  1. Cannot kill people (injury is fine)
  2. MUST!! Incapacitate or disable not used to disperse crowds
  3. Must affect a large crowd (smaller numbers are fine but not just individuals)
  4. The peacekeepers must be able to still engage targets (even in front of the Weapon) can’t be so loud/powerful that it will disable them even with protective gear on
  5. It does not have to be anything like the weapon I described so long as it would give the desired effects I mentioned

I know of the LRAD already (it is a good idea) but what I want is a weapon that will disable NOT disperse crowds. It's more for a large scale capture (they don't want any rebels getting away).

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Creed Arcon
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    That stuff already exists: https://www.livescience.com/7900-crowd-control-sonic-cannon-works.html / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Range_Acoustic_Device / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_weapon – nzaman Apr 02 '18 at 13:04
  • If there's hearing protection good enough for the peacekeepers to remain safe, wouldn't the crowd learn that very quickly and get their own? – dwizum Apr 02 '18 at 13:05
  • Strangely, Wikipedia has an article on sonic weapons. See also Long Range Acoustic Device and a LiveScience article on sonic cannons for crowd control by police. – AlexP Apr 02 '18 at 13:05
  • @dwizum the only protection is to be behind the weapon. It doesn't affect only your ears, even if you cover them, or if you are completely deaf, you are still going to feel nausea and pain. – The Square-Cube Law Apr 02 '18 at 13:14
  • @Renan, see point 3 in the original question: "The peacekeepers must be able to still engage targets (even in front of the Weapon) can't be so loud that it will disable them even with hearing protection on" that sentence lead me to believe that the original poster wanted this fictitious weapon to be safe for people wearing hearing protection. – dwizum Apr 02 '18 at 13:18
  • @dwizum Oh, I see... I was thinking about the real world ones. Yep, what we have today would not fit into what OP wants. – The Square-Cube Law Apr 02 '18 at 13:22
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    @dwizum just to point out I know all ready that the rebels would counter the Weapon with their own protection gear, but much the same with tear gas (today) the guy that's running around while the rest are on the ground or in pain will make him a big target for the peacekeepers hence rule 3 is in place. – Creed Arcon Apr 02 '18 at 15:15
  • Is there a reason or factor in your world that causes you to want a sonic weapon specifically? Why not fire hoses, tear gas, or other means of crowd control more commonly used? The fact that sonic weapons exist but aren't very common makes me wonder if the entire premise is flawed compared to alternatives. But maybe those flaws can play in to your story, maybe you aren't looking for the most optimal weapon, but one with exploitable flaws? – dwizum Apr 02 '18 at 15:52
  • @dwizum actually LRAD is slowly replacing tear gas around the world as the standard way to deal with protests. – The Square-Cube Law Apr 02 '18 at 16:08
  • Perfect! Just wondering what the Worldbuilding aspect is for this question. Is the "world" or species subjected to this weapon somehow different than present-day Earth? – dwizum Apr 02 '18 at 16:16
  • You don't need sonic weapons when you have a water cannon. Also you should probably give your law enforcement more protection and stun batons with localizators. – Nuloen The Seeker Apr 02 '18 at 16:19
  • @dwizum why I want to use a sonic weapon, unlike hoses, tear gas is that I want mass incapacitation. To give more detail most of the protesters are a small ethnic group that are not citizens, the government doesn't take to kindly to them, but they use them and the rebels as a propaganda tool to drum up support. But killing them or using heavy force will not gain them support but peacefully downing the protesters will have the rebels stand out and show the world that the peacekeepers are needed. You know how I said that I know that the rebels would exploit it... well I was counting on it – Creed Arcon Apr 02 '18 at 16:23
  • @ Mołot or any-other user that put me on hold, can you point out to me how this is too broad all a really ask is how effective would this be and if it doesn't what would work. i don't know how this is hard to understand but please enlighten me – Creed Arcon Apr 02 '18 at 23:10
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    Not too broad in my opinion but it show a lack of basic research : https://www.google.com/search?q=sonic+weapon&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-ab https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/443/questions-that-show-a-lack-of-basic-research https://scifi.meta.stackexchange.com/a/330/50917 It literally took me only 5 sec to find it and I used only the words from your question. – Vincent Apr 03 '18 at 15:06
  • @Vincent I may need to reword the question I know that LRAD existed it was what inspired me in the first place. I was more interested in the effects that I mentioned in the question and I believe that's how I asked it. (How effective would this be if it works at all, and if it does not work is there another way to get the same effect) I did not ask for the weapon itself but if the effects I wanted would work. Sorry if I made any confusion. (Still does not justify the too broad hold and I am still waiting for an answer) thank you for your time. – Creed Arcon Apr 04 '18 at 00:01
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    This has been edited to reopen, but I don't believe the statement "I know about LRAD and it's not what I want" solves the problem. Frankly, at this point I don't actually understand what you're asking. Technically, LRAD solves your problem and meets most if not all of your requirements. To vote to reopen, I would need the question edited with (a) a VERY specific question (it isn't specific at all right now) and (b) An actual justification for why LRAD doesn't meet your needs, something more comprehensive than simply dismissing it. – JBH Apr 04 '18 at 06:09
  • I don't know about sonic, but strobe lights across the correct frequency range(s) can trigger seizures in susceptible people, and there is some indication that if the light is bright enough nearly everyone is susceptible. Something similar for sonic is probably possible, but I've not seen any research about it to date. – Perkins Jun 05 '18 at 00:23

1 Answers1

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This is an age-old problem for all police forces.

As nzaman said in the comments, there are real, sonic weapons being deployed nowadays by some police forces:

Sonic weapon

The thing that looks like a drum is called LRAD. It is a weapon that shoots a focused sound beam. According to Live Science:

Its shrill warning tones can be heard at least 1,600 feet (500 meters) away and depending on the model of LRAD it can blast a maximum sound of 145 to 151 decibels — equal to a gunshot — within a 3-foot (one meter) range, according to American Technology. But there is a volume knob, so its output can be less than max, Putnam noted.

On the decibel scale, an increase of 10 (say, from 70 to 80) means that a sound is 10 times more intense. Normal traffic noise can reach 85 decibels.

For comparison, a jet engine sends out an ear-splitting 140 to 180 decibels of sound. Human conversation hovers at about 60 decibels. Permanent hearing loss can result from sounds at about 110 to 120 decibels in short bursts or even just 75 decibels if exposure lasts for long periods, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other sources.

Anything over 120 decibels is liable to be noticeably painful for some individuals, and 150 decibels would hurt anyone's ears. Such sounds damage small hair cells in the inner ear that convert sound energy into electrical signals that travel to the brain. "Once damaged, our hair cells cannot grow back," the NIH states.

But Putnam said under normal circumstances the LRAD is not harmful. "There's no way it can hurt you unless you have the ability to stand in front of it closely for several minutes," Putnam said in a telephone interview.

The best protection against those things is to be behind them when they are activated. If you must go in front of those, you can do like people who work with heavy machinery and wear ear protectors:

You gotta love 3M.

This would be very inconvenient to the protesters, though. Imagine that you are trying to coordinate a large group, trying to picket something, but everyone is for all practical purposes deaf. Alternatively, they could put these on only when the police comes with the LRAD.

For the police, it would be pretty easy to be protected against LRAD itself. A helmet with proper ear protections and a built-in radio communication system, so that police staff can talk among themselves regardless of ambient noise, would solve it. The helmets can be strapped under the chin, so they are hard to remove.

And when the protesters put on whatever protection they have, all the police has to do is go there and pull the protesters' muffs off. Or taze them. It will be much easier to pick a proper target when most of the protesters are either running for their lives or in fetal position.

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