Police automotive chases are notoriously harmful, with high-speed pursuits leading to tons of of deadly crashes every year. And whereas the Division of Justice and nationwide policing consultants have recommended that officers not aggressively pursue fleeing suspects, some departments are as an alternative experimenting with new toys that appear straight out of the type of online game the place deaths and property injury enhance the rating.
The most recent instance is a video proudly posted on Fb by the Thurston County Sheriff’s Workplace in Washington. It reveals a sheriff’s deputy engaged in a high-speed pursuit after the driving force of an allegedly stolen automotive refused to tug over. The chase ends when the deputy launches a Grappler, a bumper-mounted web that may be slid underneath a car’s rear tires, inflicting the fleeing automotive to careen off the highway, by way of a chain-link fence, and right into a tree. The driving force allegedly ran away however was later caught and arrested.
Grappler videos have turn into a little bit of a social media development for police departments and native TV information stations across the nation. However the system has additionally been documented inflicting crashes that killed and injured folks.
In a single notable incident, Border Patrol brokers in Arizona fired a Grappler at an SUV on the interstate, inflicting the car to crash into an oncoming tractor-trailer and catch fireplace. Three folks died and eight had been injured. In one other case, a Grappler triggered a police cruiser to flip, whereas the suspect ran away.
Grappler inventor Leonard Inventory has said he got here up with the system after watching a police pursuit TV present and “awoke in the course of the evening with the concept.” Inventory, who labored as a roofer, “welded a contraption on the entrance of his truck and satisfied his spouse Frances to drive the getaway automotive … that day the idea was confirmed.”
In an application requesting grant cash to pay for Grappler methods, the Thurston County Sheriff’s Workplace wrote that “getting access to expertise corresponding to Grappler can forestall and decrease deaths and accidents to suspects and harmless bystanders, in addition to shield the regulation enforcement officers themselves.”
An investigation by the San Francisco Chronicle discovered that 3,336 folks had been killed in police chases between 2017 and 2022, and an extra 52,600 had been injured.
A 2023 report from the DOJ and Police Government Analysis Discussion board recommends that police companies restrict the conditions by which they interact in pursuits and as an alternative prioritize utilizing expertise like drones or helicopters to trace fleeing autos or apprehend suspects they’ll determine, by way of license plates or different means, at a later time.
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