Police Rejoice as Absurd ‘Grappler’ System Ends Chase With a Crash

Police automotive chases are notoriously harmful, with high-speed pursuits leading to lots 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 sort of online game the place deaths and property harm improve the rating.

The newest instance is a video proudly posted on Fb by the Thurston County Sheriff’s Workplace in Washington. It exhibits a sheriff’s deputy engaged in a high-speed pursuit after the motive force of an allegedly stolen automotive refused to drag over. The chase ends when the deputy launches a Grappler, a bumper-mounted internet that may be slid below a car’s rear tires, inflicting the fleeing automotive to careen off the street, by a chain-link fence, and right into a tree. The motive force allegedly ran away however was later caught and arrested.

Grappler videos have turn out to be a little bit of a social media pattern for police departments and native TV information stations across the nation. However the machine has additionally been documented inflicting crashes that killed and injured individuals.

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 hearth. Three individuals died and eight had been injured. In one other case, a Grappler prompted a police cruiser to flip, whereas the suspect ran away.

Grappler inventor Leonard Inventory has said he got here up with the machine after watching a police pursuit TV present and “awoke in the midst of the evening with the thought.” 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 techniques, the Thurston County Sheriff’s Workplace wrote that “getting access to know-how resembling Grappler can forestall and reduce 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 individuals had been killed in police chases between 2017 and 2022, and a further 52,600 had been injured.

A 2023 report from the DOJ and Police Government Analysis Discussion board recommends that police companies restrict the conditions through which they have interaction in pursuits and as an alternative prioritize utilizing know-how like drones or helicopters to trace fleeing automobiles or apprehend suspects they’ll establish, by license plates or different means, at a later time.