By Joanna Putman
Police1
DEARBORN HEIGHTS, Mich. — The Dearborn Heights Police Department will be adopting GPS-tracking technology for pursuits, WXYZ reported.
Paul Vanderplow, director of Support Services with the Dearborn Heights Police Department, said that the department has had more than 130 pursuits this year, many of them pursuits of stolen vehicles.
“You have to chase these suspects because they need to be brought to justice, but you also can’t endanger things,” Vanderplow said. “We needed to find some way to make contact with these individuals without causing damage or putting people in danger.”
The StarChase GPS device will be mounted on the grill of police cruisers. It will be flush with the grill, making it hard to tell which cruisers are equipped with darts.
The devices are fired using compressed air and stick to the vehicle with a strong adhesive, according to the report.
“It’s going to take you some time to get it off,” Vanderplow said. “Hopefully, enough time for us to close the distance and either effect the arrest or recover the vehicle.”
The systems will cost the department just under $20 million per year, according to the report.
“The cost of this system we find is minimal compared to the possibility of rolling a vehicle, the loss of life, injury to citizens,” Vanderplow said. “We believe it’s a solid investment to keep our officers and citizens safe.”