A police officer or deputy involved in a pursuit deploys the system and drives close to the rear of the fleeing vehicle. The net then snags the rear tire of the vehicle, locking it up and quickly slowing the vehicle to a stop.
What kind of accuracy is needed to snag the tire? Seems like the odds may be similar to trying to shoot out tires from a speeding car.
What about rear drive cars? Powerful heavy cars, like Challanger, that can break the wheel net or just drag the police car behind it?
If you watched real car chases the fleeing vehicle weaves and swerves a lot. Seems the PITT maneuver would be more effective.
3 Likes
+1
While it wouldn’t be a “one in a million shot”, I think that the odds of this device working on a consistent basis to stop vehicles are… not good.
1 Like
Although this always seems to get people riled up, the best solution IMO is a receiver built into the ECM that only works if in close proximity (like Bluetooth) and law enforcement can send a command to gradually slow the car to a stop and lock the doors/windows so they can’t bail out and run. That would be far safer than what we have today like stop strips and so on. Could it be abused? Possibly. But so could any method. There are ways to minimize that potential and virtually eliminate use outside of law enforcement.
2 Likes
And much more entertaining to watch later on Cops etc…
2 Likes
About the PITT maneuver. One local station runs a promotion video shows the Oklahoma Highway Patrol doing that . How the vehicle being chased did not flip over the dividing wall into oncoming heavy traffic is hard to understand . All they had to do was go another mile and there was plenty of room to do that safely.
We don’t need a high-tech solution to stop high-speed chases. What we need is to end the War on Drugs, eliminate draconian mandatory minimum sentences, restore all rights to nonviolent offenders upon completion of their sentence, and rein in rude/unprofessional/overly-aggressive police tactics. The truth of the matter is that these things make us less safe, and lead to unnecessary escalations and violent outcomes.
The bottom line is that if someone has drugs in their car, is an ex-convict in possession of a firearm (even if they are only planning to use it for self-defense), etc, and they know they’re facing a mandatory minimum sentence of more than 5-10 years, they have little incentive to cooperate with an attempted traffic stop. In fact, if someone knows they’re facing a decadeslong sentence, they have every incentive to flee at all cost. That is a perfectly rational decision! The fact that attempting to flee might very well result in one’s own death, or the death of other people on the road becomes a risk worth taking.
Reducing harsh sentencing guidelines would actually make us all safer, because suspects will be more likely to surrender peacefully, rather than risk a high-speed pursuit. (And of course for the most violent offenders, we should be using the death penalty, and/or keeping these people in prison, so they won’t reoffend.)
Fair enough point, but there are many non-drug related crimes requiring the police to prevent a get-away car from proceeding. Robbery, spousal & child abuse, threatening behavior, wreckless/drunk driving, etc.
That particular method (as shown in the OP) seems too complicated to be of much help. Simpler and much more likely to work if the police car following calls ahead, and a forward units place a blockade or tire-popping strips in the road.
And when the runaways get shot and killed in the process, mama and the aunts cry about how good their boyz were and would never do anything wrong, despite a warrant out fir them and a gun in the car. In Minneapolis the solution was dint stop them anymore.
Remember that a warrant is only an accusation. No due-process hearing required for a warrant.
1 Like
Fixed that, Better George?
1 Like
OR, if they know running will not work, there is no incentive to run then either- at least in a car, where other innocent people may be injured or suffer monetary loss.
Looks to me like this would cause the fleeing vehicle to crash rather violently in high speed situations. It would be safer to just shoot at the front of the vehicle.
It’s almost NEVER EVER safe to shoot at a vehicle. Maybe on a deserted country road. But not in any city where there’s people.
1 Like
More nonsense from the Snowman.
1 Like
Seen to many Hollywood shows and or movies… lol
1 Like