Can cops legally fire "GPS bullets" at fleeing cars to track suspects?
What if there was a way for law enforcement to track suspects fleeing crime scenes in cars without the danger of a high speed pursuit that could put suspects, officers, and civilians at risk? One company claims to have just the solution. Is it legal?
Over the past few years, companies like Starchase have begun developing technologies like its “GPS bullet” pursuit management system, which the company describes as a “real-time tagging and tracking tool to reduce dangerous high-speed pursuits.”
The Starchase system can be mounted to the front-grill of police cruisers, and it fires stick-on “GPS bullets” or tracking devices at the suspect's vehicle through a compressed-air launcher. “The dispatcher then views the location and movements of the tagged vehicle in near real-time on a digital roadmap via a secure Internet connection,” thus rendering a dangerous high speed car-chase unnecessary. The system is being tested by a number of police departments around the US.
