Police Use GPS Technology to Cut Down on High-Speed Chases

According to some sources, police in the United States engage in over 100,000 high-speed pursuits annually. Such pursuits are unquestionably controversial. On the one hand, they seem a necessary part of law enforcement—law officers must be able to pursue and apprehend suspects. On the other hand, high-speed pursuits on public highways put the officers, the suspect, and, most importantly, innocent drivers and bystanders at risk. Statistics show that nonviolent offenders instigate over 80 percent of all high-speed pursuits; nearly 40 percent of these pursuits end in a crash, killing between three and four hundred people annually; and roughly one-third of those victims are drivers or bystanders who were not involved in the chase or the crime that led to it.

But what’s the other option? Until recently, it seemed the only alternative was for officers to back away and let suspects flee. That changed, though, in 2010 with the release of the patented StarChase Pursuit Management System. StarChase uses GPS technology to track and apprehend criminals without endangering lives with high-speed chases. How does it work?

StarChase technology involves equipping a police cruiser’s grille with a compressed air launcher. The launcher is then loaded with a magnetized “tag,” which is actually a small projectile (slightly larger than a D battery and roughly the same dimensions) enabled with GPS technology.

If a suspect begins to flee in his vehicle, the officer can pursue him a short distance and then, using a control panel inside his cruiser, fire the projectile from the front of his vehicle onto the back of the suspect’s vehicle. After it adheres, the officer can then back away and allow police dispatch to track the suspect’s movements.

The cost to equip each vehicle is around $5,000, which seems a small price to pay compared to millions of dollars in property damage, insurance costs, and loss of life caused by high-speed chases.

StarChase has been implemented by the Arizona Department of Public Safety and in Austin, Texas.

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Police Use GPS Technology to Cut Down on High-Speed Chases