Police see promise in high-tech ‘GPS bullets’

Daily News Article   —   Posted on May 19, 2016

(by Cheyenne MacDonald and Ryan O’Hare, UK Daily Mail) – Police departments are increasingly turning to ‘GPS bullets’ to catch fleeing suspects without the risk of a high-speed chase.

More than 50 agencies are now using the tracking technology, which can be launched from the grill of a police cruiser and stick to a fleeing car.

High-speed pursuits often end in a crash, resulting in injuries, property damage, and even death – but, the new tracking method allows officers to follow a suspect’s every move without endangering anyone on the road.

The dual barrel launchers contain two tracking devices (‘bullets’) and can be launched with a button on a key fob, carried by the officer.

It uses laser-guided tracking technology to launch the bullets, which are 4.5 inches long and 2 inches in diameter.

As for the tracking, it uses Google Street View maps over a secure web portal, so criminals can’t hack into the system, to track the driver in real time.

Called StarChase, the technology consists of a ‘launcher’ and a ‘bullet.’

A recent demonstration for CBS News reveals that the system has so far seen successful trials in Milwaukee, where officers report they’ve used it to make arrests and recover stolen cars.

The StarChase launcher is attached to the front of the police cruiser and uses compressed air to fire the GPS projectile, which contains a tracking device and adhesive to stick to the body of the car.

As a police officer leaves their squad car, they take a remote control with them. Or, the projectiles can be controlled using a button on the dashboard.

If the car attempts to flee, they simply press a button on the remote and the system launches the tracker at the car in front.

Once the tracker is attached to the car, the police can back off to a safe distance, monitoring the car’s location in real-time thanks to GPS signal relayed by the tracking device.

According to the system’s manufacturers, the driver can be apprehended at a safer location, if they drive home, for example.

‘The longer they go un-pursued, the more their driving behaviour settles down because they don’t want to get killed either,’ Milwaukee Police Department chief Edward Flynn told CBS.

So far, the projectiles stick to the target car roughly 50 percent of the time, CBS reports, and wet conditions have been found to pose a challenge to the adhesive.

But, the officers using the system predict the success rate will climb to 75 percent with further training.

StarChase has successfully been used 28 times since the trial period began, resulting in 17 people taken into custody, and 26 stolen cars recovered.

‘We’ve had zero fatalities, zero injuries, zero property damage, and zero liability,’ StarChase president Trevor Fischbach told CBS News.

The dual barrel launcher system reportedly costs in the region of $5,000 and can carry two tracking devices. It uses laser-guided tracking technology to launch the bullets, which are 4.5 inches long and 2 inches in diameter. As for the tracking, it uses Google Street View maps over a secure web portal.

The dual barrel launcher system reportedly costs in the region of $5,000 and can carry two tracking devices.

While the price may seem steep, StarChase points out that there are more than 100,000 high-speed pursuits in the US each year, putting officers, bystanders, and the offenders at risk – and car crashes are the leading cause of death for officers almost every year.

Reprinted here for educational purposes only. May not be reproduced on other websites without permission from the UK Daily Mail.