A new tool could help eliminate pursuits and the damage and injuries that ensue. Sheriff's Lt. Jason Santistevan demonstrates the Grappler, a mounted device designed to entangle a suspect vehicle's rear tire.
Riverside County Sheriff’s Lt. Jason Santistevan shows a Grappler mounted to a department vehicle. The tool deploys a net to entangle a suspect vehicle’s rear tire to end pursuits.
Your morning catch up: A new tool could prevent high-speed chases, the Steyer campaign’s dicey tactics and more big storiesConnery’s character, an escaped convict, blitzes through yellow cab taxis and pop-up stands as sparks fly and the FBI gives chase. But a new tool could help the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department end chases before they really begin. The agency is expanding use of its Grappler system; a mounted device geared at eliminating pursuits and the damage and injuries that ensue.
The Grappler forces speeding cars to stopA pursuing vehicle pulls within 5 feet of a fleeing car or truck. The pursuing agent presses a button, unlocking the device attached to their front bumper, and a net springs out.
“The net is designed to entangle itself on any of the rotating objects in the rear of the car,” Riverside County Sheriff’s Lt. Jason Santistevan said.
“It could be the tire, it could be the axle. ” The entangled vehicle is then supposed to stop quickly, leading to shorter chases and less potential for injuries and damage. The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department was the first in California to use one The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department became the first in California to employ the device, equipping two vehicles by mid-2025 and adding eight more vehicles six months later.
Sheriff’s Deputy David Orlik, a K-9 team member, said the Grappler bumper makes little difference in the driving of the vehicle, and he prefers the net to a spike strip, which involves risk for the deputy or officer placing such a device on the ground. Orlik said the device enables “preemptive grapples,” where law enforcement vehicles pull within deployment distance of a fleeing suspect without turning on lights or sirens.
They can then release the Grappler without the suspect being aware, he said, and prevent chases.of criminology and criminal justice at the University of South Carolina, has researched high-risk police activities for more than 30 years. He says different strategies and devices are employed nationwide, but analysis of the Grappler is nascent. Those assessments come “only through data,” he said.
“There just isn’t much out there for the Grappler. ” But he noted that what makes the new device appealing is its manufacturer’s claim that it can stop pursuits quickly.
“Anything is better than chasing,” he said. “The higher the speeds, the higher the variables and the higher the risks. ”He was a Peoria, Ariz. -based roofer troubled by televised police pursuits “that featured several tragic endings of innocent motorists being injured,” according to his company’sThen he appeared to have a Dr. Emmett Brown moment, if you’re familiar with the famed fictional scientist from “Back to the Future.
”In about a week’s time, he “welded a contraption on the front of his truck and convinced his wife Frances to drive the getaway car — the family Suburban,” the company website said. They tested the device on abandoned dirt roads around Arizona. By 2018, Phoenix Police purchased the first Grappler system. Over 150 departments throughout the nation now employ at least one Grappler.
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Safety High-Speed Chase Prevention Grappling Tool Risk Reduction Preemptive Grapple California's First
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