Rubber tracking darts may replace dangerous police chases

The Miami Beach Police Department is set to look into StarChase GPS tracking darts as an alternative to dangerous high-speed car chases.

In last week’s commission meeting, Mayor Steven Meiner offered an item that asked the city’s police department to look into the technology and return to the next meeting “with options and a recommendation for a potential pilot program regarding the utilization of StarChase GPS tracking darts to aid in the apprehension of fleeing criminal suspects.”

Mayor Meiner introduced the item and touched on the stigma high-speed police chases wear in the country and the city as they endanger residents, visitors and officers themselves.

“There’s actually innovative technology that’s being implemented out there where police do not engage in the pursuit, but there’s an adhesive GPS tracking rubber dart that the police vehicle can fire at the suspect vehicle, and since it’s rubber [it] does not cause any injury. It doesn’t even harm the car, but it’s adhesive so it’s difficult to pull off and they’d have to get out of their car to pull it off,” said Mayor Meiner. “It helps police in the sense that they can track the vehicle without having to engage in a pursuit and they can potentially have other police cars join up.”

According to the city resolution, the “StarChase GPS tracking darts offer the Police Department a potentially secure and relatively cost-effective solution for tracking and apprehending fleeing criminal suspects, while simultaneously enhancing public safety.”

A digital news video was showcased to highlight the technology and its use in Dearborn, MI. Mayor Meiner mentioned the tracking device is being looked at by locations such as Los Angeles, Massachusetts and Cincinnati.

City Police Chief Wayne Jones told commissioners of the department’s interest in the technology.

“Happy to come back … to talk more about this in detail,” said Chief Jones. “Interesting technology. We’re interested in it. Because we have a very tight policy on chases, we don’t do as many chases as the department just advertised in the video piece, but it happens unfortunately in police work.

Here in [the] Miami Beach Police Department, we chase if there is a forcible felony. In layman terms, what that means is if someone commits a violent crime then we chase them.”

The department is already in contact with representatives of the technology.

“About 12 years ago, I actually looked at this technology when I was a sergeant in our range,” Maj. Daniel Morgalo of the department’s support services division told commissioners. “At that time it was brand new and it really didn’t look feasible to us at that time, but since this has come back around now, 12 years later. I actually had a conversation yesterday [Jan. 30] with reps from the company and we have an appointment set up for them to come out and demo this equipment for us in early March.”

Maj. Morgalo pointed to new forms of this technology. A handheld version could be used in situations such as when an officer is to do a felony stop on a car, he said. “Prior to that vehicle fleeing we could potentially deploy one of these to assist us in the event they flee. Then our officers don’t need to risk their lives chasing this vehicle. It can be tracked in real time, at that real time information center via the web-based platform that they provide us to be able to look at it. Before we’ve even seen it, we can already see that the technology has gotten better and there is some value to this. We’re going to continue exploring it.”

Maj. Morgalo explained he was unsure if the early March demonstration would precede the next commission meeting. However, he assured commissioners that the department will have “additional information for the next commission meeting.”