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Police Shoot Cars With GPS Tags to Reduce High-Speed Chases
To reduce the need for dangerous, high-speed car chases, police across the country are discreetly shooting GPS tags onto vehicles attempting to flee. The suspects’ whereabouts are then plotted on a digital map so officers can cut them off, follow them home, or watch them from a safe distance.
Officers who remain where they are rather than joining the pursuit can, for example, cut off suspects across town and throw down spike strips, stopping the suspect without a chase. Or an officer can follow the suspect home and issue a sobriety test or arrest him on the spot. The GPS tag can relay information back to dispatch for days; officers deactivate it when they choose. Plus, all of the tracking data can be downloaded and used as evidence in a court of law.
And none of this requires a warrant. That’s because, unlike other GPS units, which are hidden underneath cars, StarChase is in plain sight. Fischbach says his is the only GPS system law enforcement can use without a warrant.
From the article; Trevor Fischbach, president of Virginia Beach, Va.-based StarChase, declined to comment on how much force the projectiles exert when leaving the compressed-air unit but says they are not deadly to people when used as intended.
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