With police departments around the country looking for new ways to keep officers and the public safe, the Pharr Police Department became the first in the Rio Grande Valley to receive a new tool for apprehending a suspect or responding to a mental health call.

Pharr PD unveiled the BoloWrap, which shoots an eight-foot long Kevlar tether that wraps around an individual and a blank bullet to disorient the subject. Pharr police Chief Andy Harvey Jr. said the usage of the BoloWrap is an option to use less lethal force on a suspect.

“It gives officers more options and hopefully decrease the amount of times officers have to use lethal force," Harvey Jr. said. 

Mental health unit officers see the usage of the BoloWrap as a new start. 

"There are some people out there who are going through a tough time and they can be quite evasive,” officer Nicolas Zepeda with the Pharr PD Mental Health Unit said. “At the end of the day, if there's a way that we can get them the help that they need and have another tool in our belt to assist us with that I don't see why not."