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Tagging Devices To Aid In Car Chases

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on 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."

3 of 394 comments (clear)

  1. This article is a year old! by sotweed · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Surely there should be some real experience to report by now, rather than just a press release from the manufacturer...

  2. Why unglue when smashing will work? by Vellmont · · Score: 4, Interesting


    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.

    --
    AccountKiller
  3. vehicle tracking by DarkClown · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.