first published week of: 10/28/2013
Is this piece of crime-fighting technology the beginning of the end to dangerous police car chases? Cops around the country are now firing GPS tracking devices at suspect vehicles instead of choosing to engage in what can result in sometimes deadly pursuits.
Rather than switch on lights and sirens to chase vehicles through suburban streets at high speed, police can now shoot tracking devices from a cannon mounted on their own cars.
The GPS systems stick to suspect vehicles that they would have otherwise been forced to chase and then track the runaways to an end location where police can take action in a safer environment. 'If you had told me 16 years ago that I would have had a cannon on the front of my car, I wouldn't have believed it,' Iowa State Trooper Tim Sieleman told WPEC-TV in an interview.
'People are usually so amped up with adrenaline or drugs or alcohol that they are not paying attention,' he added, explaining how the new system can work. '[When the GPS hits] it sounds like you have hit a piece of tread on the roadway. continued…