Lapd Pursues High-Tech End To High-Speed Chases

The Los Angeles Police Department, at the urging of the U.S. Department of Justice, will pilot the StarChase system developed by a company in Virginia that allows a patrol car equipped with compressed air launchers to fire a miniature GPS receiver inside a sticky compound at a moving vehicle as a means to reduce high speed chases.

“Instead of us pushing them doing 70 or 80 miles an hour…this device allows us not to have to pursue after the car,” said Police Chief William J. Bratton at the technology’s unveiling last week. “It allows us to start vectoring where the car is. Even if they bail out of the car, we’ll have pretty much instantaneously information where they are.”

The system, along with license-plate reading SMART police cruisers, facial-recognition cameras, and maybe in the future vehicle electronics disablers, is yet another example of the LAPD’s use of technology to boost enforcement efforts.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from the Los Angeles Times (02/03/06) P. B1; Winton, Richard .