Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Hardware Technology

Tagging Devices To Aid In Car Chases 394

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the car-57-where-are-you dept.
kthejoker writes "ABC News is reporting that a company called StarChase has invented a device that will allow police teams to 'tag' cars involved in dangerous chases. The device is the size of a golf ball, can be launched via an air-powered shooter attached to police vehicles, and uses a "highly efficient" glue to stick to cars. From there, it transmits its GPS position to a central monitoring station."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Tagging Devices To Aid In Car Chases More

Tagging Devices To Aid In Car Chases

Comments Filter:

  • Wicked Idea (Score:5, Funny)

    by LiquidCoooled ( 634315 ) on Sunday February 05, 2006 @08:28AM (#14645465) Homepage Journal
    Its like the spiderman toys we all used to throw at windows and doors.
    Am I the only one who could never get them to stick to friends backs?

    • Re:Wicked Idea (Score:2, Insightful)

      by FyRE666 ( 263011 )
      I don't see why they don't fashion some sort of electrical disruption device, like those trident things out of "2 Fast, 2 Furious" that the cops just shot into a car. Not only were they effective (unless the drive manages to somehow lean out of the window far enough to reach the back of the car and prize the 2 foot spear out of the bodywork while travelling at 100mph), but they look cool too.

      • I don't see why they don't fashion some sort of electrical disruption device, like those trident things out of "2 Fast, 2 Furious" that the cops just shot into a car. Not only were they effective (unless the drive manages to somehow lean out of the window far enough to reach the back of the car and prize the 2 foot spear out of the bodywork while travelling at 100mph), but they look cool too.

        If the car is driving at a high speed and all electronics stop functioning, the car becomes uncontrollable and a cras

        • Re:Wicked Idea (Score:3, Insightful)

          by hungrygrue ( 872970 )
          Wow, have you ever driven a car? Do you have the slightest clue how your steering or brakes work? I would suggest that you find out. Why, exactly, would you ever begin to think that the car would suddenly become "uncontrollable", regardless of what speed it is traveling just due to a failure of electronics? If you suddenly have no ignition and therefore no spark, your engine will die. That's it. If your headlights were to be lost as well, that would rather suck if you were traveling at high speed on a
          • The "brakes" and "accelerator" in my car (a white 2004 Prius), are in fact, drive-by-wire. A computer meltdown could make things interesting. My car is nicknamed "Snowcrash" in anticipation of this possibility. Now, Toyota claims that the brakes have a kind of mechanical hydraulic reversion with a computer failure, and I trust that they have thought of, and prepared for, at least 99% of the failure modes.

            Even in conventional internal-combustion-only cars, the transmissions are becoming significantly more

          • Re:Wicked Idea (Score:4, Interesting)

            by Dausha ( 546002 ) on Sunday February 05, 2006 @11:52AM (#14646116) Homepage
            "Once your engine stops, you will no longer have a power steering pump, which means that you won't be able to whip around a corner with one finger on the wheel, but you will still be able to steer and bring the car to a safe stop. The same goes for brakes, you won't have power assist so you will have to use some muscle and push that brake peddle down, but you will still be able to stop/slow the vehicle."

            I beg to differ in one regard. You are seriously underestimating the effects of power assist. By way of example, I would suggest you go out to a large, empty parking lot, accelerate to about 35MPH or so, and turn off the car. Now, you will retain some power assist, but only until the brakes have been used. Simulate some turns. You will find that the brakes become essentially unresponsive before you stop, although you will retain some turning.

            About twenty years ago, when I was a teenager, I would screw around with my car by finding out what would happen if, for example, the engine died. I got pretty good after a while. There was a hill about a mile from my house that I could speed up on and then turn off the car (shifting into neutral)--and coast all the way to the garage. Of course, that meant I had to climb two hills, and conduct several turns. I had no brakes, but by the time I got to the garage I was only going about 5MPH, so I could get it to stop.

            Every once in a while I remind myself of the essential helplessness we have in modern US cars by doing what I suggest to you above. When I had a '69 VW Beetle, it was no worries--just an overpowered go-cart. Now nowdays.
      • The potential for someone getting hurt with an electrical disruption device (especially a 2 foot spear!) is much higher. This is passive so it doesn't involve any risk to those in the fleeing vehicle. If someone is driving at 100mph it might actually be more dangerous to just shut their vehicle off and have them lose control at that speed. Plus, it wouldn't have any affect on pre-computer vehicles, (ok so not a lot of those speeding around....)

      • Re:Wicked Idea (Score:2, Interesting)

        by VagaStorm ( 691999 )
        1. Fiering a spear on a car doing 100 mph in trafic is rather dangerous.
        2. Why would you need a spear when you could just use a microwave gun http://www.abcnews.go.com/Technology/FutureTech/st ory?id=538452&page=1 [go.com]

        This leads me to belive this devise is realy most usefoull in cases where you whant to follow the car without stoping it.

      • Re:Wicked Idea (Score:4, Interesting)

        by keraneuology ( 760918 ) on Sunday February 05, 2006 @10:54AM (#14645920) Journal
        There is a device already deployed (though not widely) that is placed in the road and has what is essentially a wire sticking straight up. When the car drives over this gizmo the wire delivers a hefty spark to the car disabling it. I couldn't find a link/photo in 10 seconds of google so I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader. But it is already out there and works on newer cars. (Older cars without electronic fuel injection, power windows and LCD TVs (and yes, I'm trying to be mildly funny here) aren't are vulnerable to a simple spark and are harder to stop).

  • Does Parker own the patent? (Score:3, Funny)

    by aussie_a ( 778472 ) on Sunday February 05, 2006 @08:30AM (#14645474) Journal
    Shouldn't Peter Parker own the patent to this device? If so, I wondow what the police will be paying in licensing fees.

  • useful in a practical sense too (Score:4, Insightful)

    by joe 155 ( 937621 ) on Sunday February 05, 2006 @08:33AM (#14645479) Journal
    it could well help avoid fatalities in road chases, the police can then hang back and not push too hard on the person they are chasing, this should help take some of the tension out and reduce the risk of the criminals trying something stupid and killing people, police helicopters can then be called in to keep track and the people in the car can be arrested when it stops (or if the tyres are blown out in a safe place)

  • Why Only Police? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by twiddlingbits ( 707452 ) on Sunday February 05, 2006 @08:34AM (#14645480)
    Make these available to everyone. When you see someone being an idiot or asshole driver, not just the aggravating ones, but the really stupid ones you pull this out, and tag them. After about 3-4 "tags" the cops can pull them over and give them a "asshole" ticket. Even better would be if these tags had a memory in them that recorded the time and GPS coordinates of the event you tagged them for. Maybe even allow selection of event types such as speeding, reckless driving, drunk driving, blocking traffic, too slow, etc. But I guess this would be handing over the cops job to the citizens and you know we are not law enforcement trained so we wouldn't know a violation, and a lot of innocent people would be getting "harrassed"for something the didn't do ;)
    • Lets run through your scenario.
      Your driving down the motorway/freeway minding your own business, driving carefully at around the speedlimit and some speed freak comes tearing past and undertakes you.

      You take out your Tag rifle and aim it at the car in front.

      Lean out of the window and take aim, but whilst you are doing this you swerve and take out 3 cyclists also minding their own business.

    • Re:Why Only Police? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by VIPERsssss ( 907375 ) on Sunday February 05, 2006 @08:46AM (#14645515)
      That would never work. You'd have too many people tagging that "asshole because he's richer than me" porche driver and the "holier-than-thou" prius driver and the "gas guzzling enviro-hater" SUV driver just because they don't like a particular $STEREOTYPE. I'd probably be safe in my $500 sable, though.
    • You are insane. Does your car drive itself whilst you are getting this gun out and aiming it at the other car?
    • Cause too many people are taking him too seriously :D


    • if originality == 0
      {
      Gallagher brought this up years ago as a way to save money with the cops. They'd only have to watch traffic driving around and if someone had|has enough of a quota of "a%%holle" markers, pull them over & write a ticket under the premise "if they're driving [1] that many people mad, there's something wrong with them.
      }

      [1] paronomasia intended.

    • We have license plates for this purpose. You read the number and can report it later. Many commercial vehicles also have 800 numbers on them that you can call to report dangerous driving.
      • LOL. I see a lot of trucks in my area with the last 4 digits blanked out. You think the trucking companies are going to do anything on a "citizen" complaint? They got to get the frieght from A to B fast. I think the 800 #'s are just to make us think the Truckers give a damn. Calling a plate # in to the police is just as useless, unless they have an traffic officer nearby they will not respond. Most big cities have cops that are traffic and others as patrol, so not any officer will respond (unless you see a

  • This article is a year old! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by sotweed ( 118223 ) on Sunday February 05, 2006 @08:34AM (#14645481)
    Surely there should be some real experience to report by now, rather than just a press release from the manufacturer...

  • Why unglue when smashing will work? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Vellmont ( 569020 ) on Sunday February 05, 2006 @08:34AM (#14645483) Homepage

    Regardless of whether fleeing drivers realize they have been tagged, it's unlikely that individuals could unglue the dart.


    Delicate electronics don't tend to survive being hit with a hammer. You don't have to get it off the car, all you have to do is disable it. I'd be curious to see how smash proof this thing is.

  • This fills a need (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 05, 2006 @08:36AM (#14645485)
    Car chases careening through L.A. mowing down pedestrians like wheat aren't just the stuff of action movies. They're actually a significant danger.

    And for as long as people have been saying, "Chasing people down residential streets at 80 miles an hour is dangerous, for Pete's sake!" the standard reply has been, "Well, we can't just let them go."

    Now, maybe they can let them go, and the Bigger-Dick Theory of Car Chases can finally be put to bed. Stick them with a tracking dart, surprise them when they're sleeping. Just like Batman. Except with less bats.

  • what if car is stolen ? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    this will help tracking car but not the person in the car. if police stop chasing person because they think they can track using gps signal, person can leave the car ( if car is stolen ).

  • Car chases? (Score:5, Funny)

    by IncorrigiblePunster ( 952102 ) on Sunday February 05, 2006 @08:44AM (#14645509)
    I am going to have to disagree with this plan. Yes, it might make running away from the police futile. Yes, car chases will be over more quickly. But I cannot and will not deal with the loss of "World's Wildest Police Chases" because some guy who had a spiderman sticky toy when he was 9 invents a spiderman sticky toy that ends police chases. It's not right.
  • This is going to be worse than useless in such circumstances. If the police are going to be in a position to use this they'd surely be able to use spike strips to take out the tires. If a foot officer saw a stolen car and was in a position to tag it but is it worth carrying the weight. Shades of Snowcrash loogie guns.

    The only thing this would be useful for is surveillance, and there are better devices out there.

  • vehicle tracking (Score:5, Interesting)

    by DarkClown ( 7673 ) on Sunday February 05, 2006 @08:46AM (#14645513) Homepage
    I recently did work at a company that sort of competes with onstar - the field is referred to within the industry as 'telematics' apparently. Anyway, it was kind of interesting, drivers could put their cars into a theft recovery mode' where in addition to reporting gps it would also kick the cell phone on in a stealth mode where operators could hear what was going on in the car and coordinate with law enforcement. One time when I was there one of these was going on and the operator was on the phone and could hear the siren as the police approached, and was able to tell them 'no, it sounds like you're getting further away from them' when the cop car took a wrong turn or something. Pretty neat.
    Apparently the legal department of the place spent the majority of their time fighting off law enforcement from getting info from the service to track suspected drug dealers or whatever for agency requests.

    • Yes I've heard of these. One company sells a product called Boomerang. Sounds great.

      However would it not be easier to tie the theft signal directly into the engine management computer to kill the engine ( modern cars simply don't function without that computer) and look the doors? Should give the police long enough to find the car with the GPS before they break out.

      • I an EMP pulse weapon, sort of a Taser on steriods would be the way to do this. That way the the cops could see if the coast was clear before trigging the device.

        • I an EMP pulse weapon, sort of a Taser on steriods would be the way to do this. That way the the cops could see if the coast was clear before trigging the device.

          Well tasers and emp systems are completely different; tasers use high voltage while emp uses an electromagnetic pulse.

          Tasers tend not to work too well on cars as the metal frame acts as a Faraday cage protecting the electronics. And a small emp gun is simply the work of hollywood -possible but not practical and doesn't exist in the form you

    • Let's see now. How about this for a hypothetical situation:

      Criminal/drug dealer type buys expensive car with his ill gotten money. Said person then proceeds to install a GPS TRACKER in his expensive car so if it gets stolen, the company can track it and return it to him and he can take the person who stole it to court???

      I guess this is why criminals continue to get caught - because by the sounds of it, most of them are stupid enough to voluntarily put TRACKING TECHNOLOGY in their own cars. Makes it easy for

  • WWSD? (Score:2, Funny)

    by EtherealStrife ( 724374 )
    I guess this answers the age old law enforcement question...

    What Would Spiderman Do?

  • I'm pesimistic (Score:4, Insightful)

    by DongleFondle ( 655040 ) on Sunday February 05, 2006 @08:50AM (#14645527)
    It seems to me that anyone willing to engade in a long hi-speed pursuit is just the sort of person that this will NOT be effective with. I understand wanting to avoid long pursuits. In fact, in my city, as a matter of policy, police officers will not engade in a pursuit with motorcycle in the downtown area. The combination of speed and the crowdedness of the streets are simply not worth the risk.

    Also, think about the nature of the pursuits they are wanting to avoid. We've all seen it on cops. Driver takes off going way in excess of 100 mph on city and neighborhood roads. If the cops are lucky, they can radio ahead to other police officers and setup road blocks or put down tire strips. But the suspect always either nails the cops with his car and keeps going, or blows his tires out and keeps going along right on his rims shooting sparks every which way. Sometimes, the cops will perform that move where they catch up to the fleeing car and ram it on a rear fender which sends the driver spinning out of control. Sometimes this works. Sometimes they spin out and hit people and just keep on going. Sometimes they even get the suspect trapped between two cruisers and run at the driver, pistols drawn. And sometimes the drivers just smash their way right out of this almost killing the police officers in the process.

    Yeah, I understand the need to want to curtail all of this dangerous activity. But what the last thing you always see from your airial police-cam? The driver gets out and starts running. My guess, if the person fleeing is desperate enough to get involved in a high speed pursuit, then they are also probably going to run after they ditch their car. If the cop is hanging back, I seriously doubt they are going to catch them.
    • The danger that they might get away on foot is less important than the value of saving lives by safely ending the high-speed chase.
    • I think you are over estimating the intelligence of criminals. I like to watch COPS too. It drives me nuts when the cop stops a guy for a routine traffic stop then I see: Cop: "Can I have permission to look in your truck: Guy: "Uh, Uh, yah sure" Cop: "Looky here, a pound of drugs" Guy: "Uh, I don't know how it got there. Its my friends, uh I its not mine"
  • They can just stick these on the sides of inmates' heads, and if they try to scale a wall or dig a tunnel and escape, they can just go find him. The best thing is they only need the dogs for the last three meters or so.

  • Not So Easy (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Old Spider ( 948471 )
    That's not a bad idea at all. A hand-held launcher has one huge flaw: while you are chasing a suspect's car you are also likely speeding through the streets with the other vehicle, attempting to avoid obstacles and pedestrians, talking to other officers, trying to keep up with where you are so you know what to tell the other officers, and bouncing around inside your car. Now try tagging someone with one of these trackers at the same time. Not only would you be unlikely to make the shot, but you'll also b
    • I would presume that this would be fired by an assitant officer in the passenger seat?

      • Re:Not So Easy (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Old Spider ( 948471 )
        The article doesn't say anything about that. However, I would advise against having a partner in the vehicle. You see, the reason the police in the US stopped using partners like that is because having two people in a hightened state (the adrenalin rush) causes them to experience a sort of tunnel vision. They become less inclined to keep sharp on the situation and instead fall prey to group hysteria. The obvious solution was to keep other officers out of a squad car so that officer can concetrate and ke
        • That's a strange theory. In the UK, as far as I'm aware, the Police are pretty much required to have a co-pilot with them in the car, for various reasonings, including the general safety that comes from splitting an intense situation between 2 people, and the 'witness' you have to anything either of you do.

  • Not a silver bullet (Score:3, Insightful)

    by spiritraveller ( 641174 ) on Sunday February 05, 2006 @09:01AM (#14645561)
    The idea that this will end high-speed car chases is seriously far-fetched.

    If a policeman relies on this device and stops chasing the guy, the common criminal will simply ditch the car and get away.

    The reason cops chase people is so the bad guy doesn't get away. Maybe it will help in situations where the police can't help but lose sight of a car in a chase, but how often does that happen outside of the movies?
    • I think people are taking an over simplified view of this. Just because police cars have dropped back does not mean the suspect is no longer being persued. In the UK it seems to be standard practise to call in a helicopter to follow the car. This device would simply make it easier for the police helicopter to distinguish the car from others around it, and would also allow for the possibility that officers lose sight of the car before a helicopter arrives.

      Yes, the criminal will most likely ditch the car e
      • My point is that police will not fall back... at least not American police. Cops in rural America don't usually have helicopters at their disposal.

        And truth be told: American cops like to drive fast. Cowboy culture, know what I mean?
  • Just like the kiddie trackers and other GPS devices. they will stop working t he moment they are in a building of any size and with a metal roof or lots of stuff between the sky and the reciever.

    Solution? when you get enough of a lead, stop and either yank the damned thing off, wrap it in tinfoil, pull into a all metal trailer, etc....

    The GPS in phones always made me laugh. The ones in Nextel phones suck horribly taking upwards of 10 minutes to get a fix and do not work indoors.

    All these startups are tryi
  • Okay... that just makes the case once more for the GPS jammer, a device that emulates GPS signals and fools every GPS receiver in its vicinity into thinking it is located near the south pole. Of course the car is still trackable by triangulating the location beacon. Of course a GPS jammer like that would be a dangerous thing to have and I'm thinking of here is what if someone happens to put that on a plane. I fly myself so that's a scary thought.
  • When we were kids we used to throw snowballs at passing cars. The kids of tomorrow will be throwing sticky GPS tracking devices at cars.

  • Not every city has a helicopter... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by m0ng0l ( 654467 ) on Sunday February 05, 2006 @09:23AM (#14645615)
    I kept seeing a recurring theme throughout the posts on this device (and I haven't read the article yet), in that police should chase the criminals with helicopters. Great idea, but a lot of cities and towns don't have, or can't afford, or don't have the facilities for a helicopter.

    There are also many ways in which a helicopter can be either avoided, or at least forced to drop far enough back to give you a better chance to lose it. Going near a major airport comes to mind. A city with many tall buildings (downtown New York or LA comes to mind) would make the helicopter less effective.

    The way I could see police using this device, is tag the car, then "let" them get away/out of sight. Using the GPS, keep a group of patrol cars in a "box" around the suspect, and eventually, he/she will stop somewhere. At that point, move in. Best case, everybody wins. The cops get the criminal, the vehicle is minimally damaged, and few if any civilians get hurt. Worst case, the cops get the car back in good shape, and again, few if any civilians get hurt. Truthfully, I believe the cops would much prefer fewer chances of civilian injuries versus getting the criminal in custody, and not just because of the lawsuits.

    Likely, most chases start when the criminal does something to attract the attention of the police, who then do what they are supposed to do: try to catch them. The problem with backing off, is that once the chase is on, they get fixated on stopping them. It seems a (very loosely) similar situation would be when one is working on a project or program, and is cruising along, try to stop... One big difference, which I'm sure someone would point out if I don't, is writing code isn't going to hurt anyone.

    Stop and think for a moment, too, what would happen if the police *never* chased. Why bother doing anything even remotely near the speed limit? Streets are too corwded, hit the sidewalk at 60mph... Traffic signals would be less than "suggestions"....

    At least if people think there's the possiblity of a cop, or several cops, chasing, and likely stopping them, they're more likely to simply pull over. With the obvious exception of criminals....

  • Won't the police need spider-sense (Score:3, Funny)

    by MECC ( 8478 ) on Sunday February 05, 2006 @09:25AM (#14645620)
    Won't the cops need spidey senses to use it?

  • Tag people (Score:5, Funny)

    by nurb432 ( 527695 ) on Sunday February 05, 2006 @09:27AM (#14645626) Homepage Journal
    If everyone has a tag, then you can just track people directly. Even when they are on foot.

    Wouldnt we be so much safer if the government knew where everyone was , at all times?

  • what happens if the criminal panics..... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by techmedic ( 889980 ) on Sunday February 05, 2006 @09:45AM (#14645677)
    What happens if the criminal panics?? More specifically, what will happen if the criminal thats being chased looks out his window and sees the cop aiming what looks like to be a gun at the car? Granted it would be pretty unrealistic to expect the officer to pull right up, point the thing out the side window and shoot while driving along side, but even so, one of three things could happen. The criminal can shoot back (very doubtful but who knows in a car chase). Or the guy can panic, loose control of the car, sending it into who knows where, or he can go at even faster speeds trying to lose the cop. Or he could just stop and the chase would be over ;) Its pretty obvious that these darts have to be shot discretely.

  • I've kind of thought that a highspeed RC car could launch, use military technology for tracking, get under the car and attach itself with a bunch of hard drive magents. Either use that as the GPS device (which eliminates the whole impact debate here) or emits a small, localized EMP. Yes, I know that EMP takes a lot of energy, but nothing a couple of really large capacitors could be revved up to handle. Few people are likely to initiate a chase in any vehicle that doesn't have a computer nowadays, so the

  • Shoot back (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 05, 2006 @09:59AM (#14645714)
    The cops start shooting at you with anything at all for whatever reason their little pea brain has, that gives you the right to shoot back.

    If you are ever involved in a high speed car chase, common sense should tell you you can't outrun a cop car which has a souped up engine, souped up radiator, bigger gas tank, and when they are interconnected out there with radios and a central dispatch. You can learn alot from the discovery channel.

    This is what you do.

    First, you jam them across the radio band with a white noise generator connected to a transmitter you have wired to your beefed up car electronics system. If you're not driving with one of these, you're a sitting duck for any police action against you. They will pull you over, they will search you, they will plant evidence on you, and you will suddenly find yourself doing 10 to life. Pigs have more access to 'drug evidence' they can plant on you than you could ever imagine. In the end, it comes down to your word against theirs, who do you think a jury will believe. I thought so. The only person who will protect you is you yourself. This is life or death.

    Second, you site your automatic weapons on the son of a ****** that is chasing you from the rear seat while someone else drives. Slow down, let them catch up to you, and then aiming straight for the driver you let him have it with the full clip. If that don't kill the SOB it sure as heck will convince him to back the f off. If you can't get the driver, the tires and the radiator are secondary targets.
    Remember to lead your target.

    If you don't have someone else in the car or a weapon, you have to follow Boella's (sp?) Dicta, which says you should always, always, turn and face your enemy at all times. In this case, the bogie is already on yoru tail. Speed up real fast, get him going real fast with lots of inertia, and then slow down, closing the gap, so Piggie thinks he's being supercop and has you now. Then slam on the brakes real hard so he smashes into your rear end. You will be expecting it, he won't.

    Now most amatuers at this point would speed up and try to run for it again. No, that gives him time to speed up and go back into supercop mode. You do what any motherbear would do protecting her cubs. You turn and fight. That's right, swing your car around, and start ramming the SOB. Forward, backwards, forward, backwards, slam in to him, aiming for the weak points in his combat vehicle.. the driver side door first, the radiator second. Once you've beaten him black and blue, then you can leave. Get a good distance a way, ditch the car out of site, and get yourself a fresh vehicle.

    You will want to return and pick up the original car later, as it may trace back to you with prints, etc. So its good to stash it down some logging road in the back woods.

    Or, you can continue to live in your fairy land, that the police are there to serve and protect, and not a police state out of control, only interested in protecting power and fear and slander upon you. And that a defense lawyer, which should be the most honorable profession on earth, meant to be the last stand against the overwhelming power of the state... hasn't been undermined or sold out yet or has no clue how to really defend anybody in court, irregardless of how expensive they are.

    The only one who will protect your rights are you. You have to fight like a pyscho Indian, and yes, its to the death. Why this is? Because for the last 20 years nobody has stood up for civil rights, and everything that was fought for in World War 2 against fascism and police power has been eroded away and is now gone.

    Oh yeah, and when you stash your beat up car, assuming the "paintball golf ball gps unit" is still attached. Stop by an airport, find a plane that is about to take off, and stash it on somebody's carry on. Or if you can't find that, watch for one of those ninja bikes, and when he stops for gas, tag him with it, he should give them a run for the moeny. Or barring all t

  • The method being proposed does not prevent the chase. It only allows the police to hang back a little because they have to be close enough to not give the criminal a head start on a foot chase.

    Someone running from the police at high speed is wielding a deadly weapon against the public. Use of lethal force is unquestionably justified, but the police can't just shoot at these folks in most situations due to the danger of missing and hitting a civilian.

    Why not just replace the payload on these things with

  • Saw this on a TV show (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    They use one of these in episode 8 of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex to track and follow some criminals who are getting away through crowded down-town traffic. Nice to see some things from Sci-fi coming into reality.

  • RF Jamming (Score:4, Interesting)

    by nurb432 ( 527695 ) on Sunday February 05, 2006 @10:37AM (#14645865) Homepage Journal
    So you just have a jammer in the car before you commit a crime. Problem solved.

  • It wouldn't take that long (Score:3, Insightful)

    by HangingChad ( 677530 ) on Sunday February 05, 2006 @10:42AM (#14645882) Homepage
    Some of you suggesting the perp could just stop and pull the sticky thing off should realize that when they stop, they'll have about 30 maybe 40 seconds, tops. That's a Chinese Fire Drill. Dispatch will know right where they are in real time and will be able to put units along their route. It won't stop the chase, the cops will just be able to drive at a more sane speed. Certainly it will give them a chance to ditch the car and flee on foot but I don't think they're likely to kill many people on foot.

    Tag 'em and bag 'em may not sound glamorous but I for one welcome our new sticky dart, GPS tracking overlords. It'll be safer for everyone.

  • Will not work (Score:3, Funny)

    by failedlogic ( 627314 ) on Sunday February 05, 2006 @11:29AM (#14646052)
    As we've all grown up in the virtual crime world of Grand Theft Auto, as soon as our car gets 'tagged' by law enforcement, you just have to go and steal a new car!

  • A smarter system (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Deadstick ( 535032 ) on Sunday February 05, 2006 @11:48AM (#14646105)
    ...would be a 20mm cannon. That way when the cop misses the fugitive car and hits a pedestrian, the pedestrian won't be around to file the lawsuit.

    rj

Slashdot Top Deals

Do you suffer painful recrimination? -- Nancy Boxer, "Structured Programming with Come-froms"

Close