Yep but Tazers & CS are banned and if you made something to fire a baton you'd probably be in serious trouble as well. I agree about what you said about reprisals, the guy I was talking about earlier has had to move out of his nice house as far as I know, a lot of pressure to put on the family.
Ideally you should be able to use non leathal force but it would be better if it could be something a bit better than a cricket bat