For more than a hundred years, peace officers in this country have used blunt trauma as a substitute for lethal force.
Even in the shoot-'em-up days of the wild west, savvy peace officers fired their sidearms only as a last resort. Wyatt Earp, for instance, was well known for talking miscreants into submission. If that didn't work, the eight inch barrel of his .44 caliber Smith and Wesson, laid alongside the bad guy's head, usually did the job. It was said of Earp, during his 1878 tenure as a Dodge City police officer, "He had a quiet way of taking the most desperate characters into custody..."
As towns and cities along the frontier grew and expanded, concerned city fathers, citizen groups and peace officers looked for alternative means to discourage rowdy cowboys, trouble-making drifters and local criminal elements from endangering public safety. The 12 inch barrel of the famous Buntline Special, a favorite of Marshall Wild Bill Hickok, was designed specifically for that purpose.
Batons, as both a defensive and offensive part of the law enforcement arsenal, grew out of that idea; that officers should subdue suspects with the minimum amount of necessary force.
Today, the use of lethal force is not only discouraged, there are legal ramifications if it is not used as a last resort. The "in gravest extreme" concept now applies to cops as well as everybody else. This is almost always department policy, and in many jurisdictions, it's the law as well. Shooting a suspect, today, is nearly always perceived as the use of unnecessary force; and proof to the contrary lies on the officer's shoulders. Thus, proper education in the selection and use of batons is more crucial than ever.