Police car chases are notoriously dangerous, with high-speed pursuits resulting in hundreds of fatal crashes each year. And while the Department of Justice and national policing experts have recommended that officers not aggressively pursue fleeing suspects, some departments are instead experimenting with new toys that seem straight out of the kind of video game where deaths and property damage increase the score.
The latest example is a video proudly posted on Facebook by the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office in Washington. It shows a sheriff’s deputy engaged in a high-speed pursuit after the driver of an allegedly stolen car refused to pull over. The chase ends when the deputy launches a Grappler, a bumper-mounted net that can be slid under a vehicle’s rear tires, causing the fleeing car to careen off the road, through a chain-link fence, and into a tree. The driver allegedly ran away but was later caught and arrested.
Grappler videos have become a bit of a social media trend for police departments and local TV news stations around the country. But the device has also been documented causing crashes that killed and injured people.
In one notable incident, Border Patrol agents in Arizona fired a Grappler at an SUV on the interstate, causing the vehicle to crash into an oncoming tractor-trailer and catch fire. Three people died and eight were injured. In another case, a Grappler caused a police cruiser to flip, while the suspect ran away.
Grappler inventor Leonard Stock has said he came up with the device after watching a police pursuit TV show and “awoke in the middle of the night with the idea.” Stock, who worked as a roofer, “welded a contraption on the front of his truck and convinced his wife Frances to drive the getaway car … that day the concept was proven.”
In an application requesting grant money to pay for Grappler systems, the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office wrote that “having access to technology such as Grappler can prevent and minimize deaths and injuries to suspects and innocent bystanders, as well as protect the law enforcement officers themselves.”
An investigation by the San Francisco Chronicle found that 3,336 people were killed in police chases between 2017 and 2022, and an additional 52,600 were injured.
A 2023 report from the DOJ and Police Executive Research Forum recommends that police agencies limit the situations in which they engage in pursuits and instead prioritize using technology like drones or helicopters to track fleeing vehicles or apprehend suspects they can identify, through license plates or other means, at a later time.
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