Austin police improve safety with StarChase instead of car pursuits

Indeed, an adrenaline-filled car chase is a recipe for accidents that result in injuries, fatalities and significant property damage. StarChase is designed to remove the high-speed chase from the equation by allowing an officer driving a StarChase-equipped vehicle to shoot a GPS tracking device—projected by a compressed-air launcher installed on the officer’s vehicle—that adheres to the suspect’s vehicle.

Once the GPS tag is on the suspect vehicle, the officer no longer needs to chase the suspect to know the suspects location. Instead, the location of the suspect vehicle can be tracked on a map, allowing for a more orderly stoppage to be arranged by law enforcement, Fischbach said.

“In all instances during [a recent study of the technology], when StarChase was being used, there were no traditional pursuits,” he said. “There have been zero injuries, zero property damage and zero fatalities. What’s also interesting from the data is that—within two miles of a vehicle being tagged—speeds decreased to within 10 miles per hour of the posted [speed] limit.

“So, when you take the pressure off of [the suspect vehicle], these cars slow down, try to blend in and go about whatever business they were going about before they were getting pulled over. That’s very promising data and plays on normal human behavior—if someone’s not chasing you, you’re probably not going to be running.”

When the initial law enforcement vehicle stops its pursuit of the suspect vehicle, many suspects believe they have escaped arrest, but nothing could be further from the truth, Fischbach said.

“The nice thing is that law enforcement knows exactly what’s going on,” Fischbach said. “The suspect doesn’t have a clue, so they go on about their business, thinking either that they got away or thinking that the agency’s pursuit policy was such that it didn’t allow them to continue, so they dismiss it. Then 20, 30 or 40 minutes later, law enforcement is back on their tail.”

And the impact of StarChase extends well beyond improving the safety of the suspect vehicle and the law enforcement vehicle in immediate pursuit, Fischbach said. Using StarChase also positively affects the actions of other law enforcement officers in the nearby area, he said.