The car chase is a staple of life in Los Angeles. Local TV stations frequently drop regular programmes to follow police pursuits live, the grainy images shot from helicopters wheeling over the endless grid of the city’s streets. OJ Simpson, aided by a bevy of police cruisers, helped produce some of the city’s most memorable images, the funereal slo-mo car chase following the murder of his wife.
But now the police pursuit could be history. The Los Angeles police department announced it is to test a sticky dart, called a ”pursuit management system” by its manufacturer. The dart, more of a gooey ball fitted with a global positioning system, is fired from a compressed air gun fitted to the radiator of a police car. In theory, it will stick to a suspect vehicle, allowing police to avoid the danger of a high-speed pursuit.
”In the car chase capital of the world, this device is a very appropriate device,” police chief William Bratton told a news conference. ”It reduces the need for officers to have an active pursuit.”
Last year there were 602 police car chases in Los Angeles, resulting in 254 collisions. As a result, 175 people were injured and three died.
On Sunday, in the latest high-profile chase, a man was shot three times at close range by a police officer, the events played out on local television. Last week also saw the release of conflicting reports on the police shooting last year of a 13-year-old boy at the end of a pursuit.
The dart’s effectiveness on the street has yet to be proved. It has a range of just 20 metres and has only been tested on stationary targets. – Guardian Unlimited Â