High speed police chases are a reality in many cities across America – after a crime, there’s the chance that a criminal will feel the need to run from the police in a two-ton death missile we all like to call the automobile. 

That’s where the high-tech folks at StarChase come in. They’ve developed a system that can be mounted in the nose of a patrol car and fires an adhesive GPS tracker at a fleeing car, allowing the police department to back off the fleeing criminal and instead use the tracker to follow the vehicle.

The thought process behind the system is simple. As the chasing officers have the opportunity to track the criminal, they can back off from the chase, and just catch the perp when he goes to ground. By lessening the fight-or-flight response from the criminal, the hope is that innocent bystanders won’t be injured by a scumbag that has no regard for human life. StarChase has been put into practice in a number of police departments nationwide, as you can see from the videos, with results that appear to show the device works well. 

And despite the high cost of entry, at $5,000 per vehicle, with a $500 cost per “shell” fired, plus training for the officers on how to use it, it’s worth it if it saves a couple of lives a year and a bunch of money thanks to the reduction in chase-caused crashes. The extra added benefit of catching the criminals is the cherry atop the pie.

As they say, ya can’t outrun the radio. In this case, it’s a GPS radio – and a smart invention. We wonder if Bond filed for a patent.