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One California sheriff’s department is trying to emulate a famous vigilante — who is known for his fancy gadgets — to catch criminals.
The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department will equip 16 patrol cars by this summer with the “Grappler,” a a Batman-inspired device invented to halt fleeing drivers.
The gadget’s inventor, Leonard Stock, told the LA Daily News that the idea came to him after he woke up in the middle of night.
He had been a fan of police reality shows, but cringed when innocent bystanders got hurt in car chases.
Stock decided to do something about it, and invented the Grappler. The device attaches to the front of a police vehicle, and looks like a net. When a police pursuer draws close to a suspect vehicle, the device can be lowered until it makes contact with the back of the fleeing vehicle’s tire.
A net then wraps around a single tire of the suspect’s vehicle, and then the patrol car can slow down, bringing the suspect’s vehicle to screeching stop with a long-tether.
Each Grappler costs $5,270, which doesn’t include installation and training. The net is not for sale to the public, Stock says.
The device found its first usage with the Phoenix Police Department in 2018, and the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department became the first law enforcement agency in California to use it last year.
Stock says some officers say it looks like something that belongs on the Batmobile, Batman’s high-tech vehicle. “I talk to police officers constantly,” Stock said. “Almost every time, someone comes up to me and tells me they thought it was just a gimmick.”
Riverside County Sheriff’s Department officers say the device is a “game-changer.”
“It’s a game-changer,” Lt. Jason Santistevan told the LA Daily News. “Being in law enforcement for about 22 years, this is probably the best technology we have right now at stopping pursuits … preventing them, as well.”
Riverside officers say the device could save lives. In one instance, a suspect entered the freeway driving the wrong direction, and cops halted him with the device.
“If you think of that scenario,” the lieutenant told the LA Daily News, “and you think about all these preemptive grapples that we’re doing now, preventing pursuits, one of the things that we can’t put a value on … what did we just prevent?
“If we didn’t have a Grappler system, that car went on the freeway, we could add a fatality.”
The San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office in Northern California has also deployed the device, along with a third law enforcement agency in California.
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