Raleigh Mayor Janet Cowell takes a StarChase Guardian 54 mm GPS round from Council member Mitchell Silver.
amroman@newsobserver.com
RALEIGH
Some Raleigh city leaders this week questioned nearly $450,000 worth of equipment being donated to the Raleigh Police Department, including GPS darts that officers can fire to track fleeing vehicles instead of chasing them.
The vote Tuesday on whether to accept the donated equipment from the Raleigh Police Department Foundation was scheduled to be a routine one.
It was on the consent agenda, where noncontroversial items are bunched together for one, usually unanimous vote.
But council member Christina Jones asked that the donation be pulled from consent, prompting a presentation from Police Chief Rico Boyce about the 54 mm GPS rounds, made by the Virginia-based company StarChase.
“Think of it as an (Apple) AirTag that law enforcement deploys on a vehicle that is fleeing a lawful traffic stop, or if we have probable cause to believe that a vehicle has committed a crime and the occupants within that [vehicle] need to be taken into custody, ” Boyce told the council.
Subhead
Each of the 20 kits comes with a dual barrel launcher that attaches to the front of a police car, a control panel and remote key fob to trigger the GPS dart, which attaches to a fleeing vehicle with an adhesive. The system uses compressed air to launch the round, and some videos show a green laser that officers can use to help aim it.
StarChase’s website touts an 85% apprehension rate and more than 10,000 “successful tag” deployments.
Safely ending vehicle chases is a priority for the Police Department, Boyce said, since chases can injure officers, suspects and members of the public on the streets and cause property damage. Raleigh previously used Stop Sticks, the metal strips officers can put on the road to deflate tires, in vehicle chases.
“For many years, what we saw was that officers were getting killed throughout the country by deploying these Stop Sticks, as well as vehicles would continue to move forward and cause additional damage after the tires (were deflated) by the Stop Sticks. So it wasn’t a very useful tool.”
When he became chief, Boyce said he asked his senior team to bring a list of equipment that could help safely stop car chases and the GPS rounds were brought up.
In addition to kits being donated, there should be long-term savings compared to “crash-related claims” against the city in which someone is injured or killed, he said.
Sharing the data
Boyce’s presentation wouldn’t have happened without the item being pulled from the consent agenda, Jones said, and residents may ask “why is an outside foundation purchasing equipment that the Police Department is using.”
The nonprofit Raleigh Police Department Foundation provides “essential funding for new equipment and technology” to improve public safety. It has previously donated electric motorcycles, bicycles, night-vision goggles, ballistic helmets and horses for the department’s mounted patrol.
Jones also asked if the City Attorney’s Office had vetted the GPS rounds. City Attorney Karen McDonald said her office shares the chief’s assessment.
Mayor Pro Tem Jane Harrison said people have asked her if federal agents would have access to RPD’s technology.
“This is RPD information,” Boyce said. “We do not share data with federal law enforcement agencies. …. Legally, we are bound by [the Criminal Justice Information System]. We must adhere to those requirements about data security and not sharing that data with anyone subject to a court order.”
Council member Megan Patton also said she was “in line” with reducing risk to officers and the public but had “similar concerns around data, privacy and security.”
Along with the GPS darts, the donation included two mobile surveillance trailers and gym equipment for two district fitness rooms for a total value of $441,776.
Jones asked that the item be held two weeks until the next council meeting.
“Over the last three years in our budgeting process, I haven’t seen a report from police,” Jones said. “We don’t normally do budget work sessions with police. So I don’t always understand the needs of the department. So these conversations are really helpful. It’s helpful to me. It’s helpful to your goal of making it transparent to the community.”
But other s, like council member Stormie Forte, said they were ready to vote . She asked Boyce how long he’d been a police officer in the Raleigh Police Department.
He responded 26 years, going on to say as chief he has personally tested and vetted this equipment .
“We just saw firsthand five vehicle chases last week,” he said. “I don’t want to be in a situation where I have no resources., [where] my officers have no resources. This gives us a resource to put in our inventory.”
Forte said she appreciated the foundation and said the city should accept the donation since it’s coming from private individuals and not taxpayers.
“I know we talk a lot about our commitment to public safety,” Forte told the chief “The city is growing. We have a lot of folks who live here, they are residents, but also folks who come into the city to visit. I appreciate the work that you and your staff do.”
Mayor Janet Cowell agreed.
“The fact that we had five car chases last week [shows] there is some sense of urgency that this could improve public safety immediately,” she said.
Before the vote, Jones clarified that her request for a delay “has nothing to do with my respect or trust” in Boyce’s judgment.
“It has to do more with the process of understanding and making it more transparent for the community,” she said. “So when I’m seeing a consent item that I don’t have the background information, I don’t have reports that we do on a regular basis, I don’t have backup on this. In this moment, it’s not that I want to deny your request. It’s that I’m asking for two weeks to say, ‘Hey, can I have some time to just read it.’ So that I can help and amplify the work that you’re doing.”
The donation was accepted in a 6-2 vote, with Jones and Patton voting against it.
Anna Roman
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