ANDERSON, CA -- A California police department is now using nunchucks as a way to forcibly restrain suspects. It's illegal to own nunchucks in the state of California, ABC affiliate KRCR-TV reports.

But nunchucks, (sometimes referred to as nunchaku), were once used by as many as 200 police departments nationwide in the 1980s and 1990s to “more compassionately” and “more safely ...

It's illegal to own nunchucks in the state of California, ABC affiliate KRCR-TV reports. Police, however, can be certified to use them as a multipurpose weapon.