ScanDiego.com

Laser-guided GPS tracker slug-like projectile fired at the suspect's vehicle:

http://starchase.org/index.html

What a load...it does not stop a pursuit...it tells you where a car may be. In the end we want the crook, not the car.

So someone is driving like a fool through a residential neighborhood, say 75 mph up and down the streets. Cop tries to stop him, he takes off. Cop drops the pursuit and "tags" the car with this thing. We know where the guy is as he drives like a nut, still putting the public at risk.

This is what happens when people who don't really understand the problem come up with what they think is a solution.

Then there is the issue of "firing" anything into a vehicle. The first time someone in that car is injured by this projectile....

So someone is driving like a fool through a residential neighborhood, say 75 mph up and down the streets. Cop tries to stop him, he takes off. Cop drops the pursuit and "tags" the car with this thing. We know where the guy is as he drives like a nut, still putting the public at risk.

The police can't control whether he drives like a nut or not. They are going to back off because of the residential neighborhood, but whats wrong with knowing where he is? Or at least having a starting point for setting up a perimeter after he foot bails? And if you read how it works, it uses a compressed air launcher and the projectile adheres to the vehicle. It doesn't fire a slug into the suspects vehicle.

2912N wrote:What a load...it does not stop a pursuit...it tells you where a car may be. In the end we want the crook, not the car.

So someone is driving like a fool through a residential neighborhood, say 75 mph up and down the streets. Cop tries to stop him, he takes off. Cop drops the pursuit and "tags" the car with this thing. We know where the guy is as he drives like a nut, still putting the public at risk.

This is what happens when people who don't really understand the problem come up with what they think is a solution.

Then there is the issue of "firing" anything into a vehicle. The first time someone in that car is injured by this projectile....

To civilians, stop and drop are synonymous. Nothing to say you won't later arrest the guy if you can block the intersections in the area and he rabbits right in front of you because of it.

There are lots of ways to know where a guy is. That is not the problem with pursuits. (which is the issue addressed by this thing.)

The issue in pursuits is how to stop the car. Invent something that gets the car stopped in a safe manner and you will have police agencies beating down your door.

As for the firing at the car....does not matter what it shoots or how it shoots it...an agency is opening up yet another liability door using this. At some point someone will be hurt by the projectile and another suit will be filed.

Once again, the issue is not where the car is. We rarely lose a car in a pursuit. The issue is stopping the bad guy and getting him into custody with the least amount of danger to all. (By policy you can't just block an intersection).

I guess that's what this ex-LEO meant when he said stupid policies were why he retired. It's a wonder the PIT or any force can EVER be used, and instead the only thing you can do is shout "ni!"

If you could block off streets and ABLE was down or grounded, you could fire it right at the beginning, PA warn, observe for signs of slowdown, wait for backup to block the area, then drop and lock down your point of ingress. And the tech is such that it might be able to predict with mathematical probability where the guy will head next based on his previous evasive maneuvers. Predict, instead of prevent, or react.

I consider vehicles deadly weapons and if someone's driving them recklessly, they might as well be wildly firing a Thompson SMG. Just a matter of time before there is severe collateral damage to persons and objects.

Oh, and police have qualified immunity in high-speed chases. No proof of deliberate intent to harm, no case.

http://www.metnews.com/articles/2008/bing011608.htm

Ok, so you back off and let the guy drive around. You lock down a several square block area. Then he pulls over and runs from the car. Who is he? You may have the car, but no one who is close enough to say for certain he is the driver.

Once again it is a system that is designed by someone who thinks they understand pursuits but in reality does not. It sounds cool, has the wow factor, but is not really what we need.

PIT is nice, can bring the pursuit to an end, but it has the potential for causing injury and it damages equipment. As I said before, develop a tool that will safely bring the suspect to a stop quickly with little danger and you will have agencies beating your door down with orders.

An example of good idea with major problems just look at spike strips. Nice concept, flatten tires slowly so there is no loss of control. But first you have to get in front of the bad guy, anticipate where he is going to be, get the strips out without hitting other traffic and then deploy them without the suspect swerving and trying to (and sadly, in a fair number of cases, hitting the officer.)

Get in front of him and use a rear-facing camera?

I don't think that tool can ever be created as long as magic is only sleight-of-hand. Or as long as vehicles are allowed to exist that are immune to EMP (in case a portable directed EMP charge was invented and mounted to the front bumper of every patrol unit).

So basically since policy is more anal-retentive than case law, you're left with the only unrestricted (only by luck) tool being the spike-strip, and only the officers risking great bodily injury or death to use it.

The person using his deadly weapon in a reckless manner should have the highest risk, nobody else.

They need to invent a device that the manufacturers of the vehicles install before vehicles are put out there that the device can stop the vehicle from running from the law.

I just figured it would be less costly to get rid of (store at government facilities in case of terrorist attack) the civilian EMP-immune vehicles and outfit patrol cars with a directed EMP rather than installing a device in the hundreds of millions of civvy ones.