A company called Stock Enterprises has just revealed what it believes could be the future of ending police chases; the Grappler Police Bumper.
“The options right now are getting in front of a suspect vehicle to deploy tire spikes or using the pit maneuver or some type of smash up derby style process to stop a vehicle and the officer many times is pinned against a suspect vehicle,” the inventor of the Grappler, Leonard Stock, told FOX10 news.
The device aims to swiftly end dangerous police chases and involves a Y-shaped device that deploys off the front of a police cruiser. It incorporates flexible yellow bands which entangle themselves around the rear wheel of a fleeing vehicle, swiftly bringing it to a halt without the obvious risks of side-swipping a vehicle. For high speed chases, the tether itself can detach from the police cruiser, and lock to the wheel of the suspects car, locking up the wheel.
Stock said he got the idea after watching MAD MAX: Fury Road a late night television show about high-speed chases.
“The conclusion of one of the chases was an innocent motorist getting t-boned and I went to sleep that night just so aggravated that this was happening. And I woke up at 3:00 in the morning just suddenly and this was the first thought I had,” he said. After eight years of development and research, Stock introduced his vehicle catcher.
In the video below, the Grappler Police Bumper appears effective, though we’re not so sure how it would work with other types of vehicles such as low-riding sports cars, nor if it poses danger to other vehicles on the road. It’s not yet known if any police forces in the U.S. intend on trying the device.