Portland Police Considered Buying Technology That Shoots GPS Trackers at Fleeing Vehicles

The Portland Police Bureau won a federal grant in September to outfit three of its patrol vehicles with GPS launchers, designed to eliminate the need for dangerous high-speed chases. The launchers, designed by Virginia-based StarChase, would have helped the city bolster its efforts to track down stolen vehicles.

But the bureau has since changed its plans. In a statement to WW, PPB spokesman Kevin Allen says the bureau is still evaluating its options and “has no immediate plans to purchase the tech,” despite the city having requested money from the federal government to launch a three-vehicle pilot.

The bureau can now use the money for other purposes, Allen says.

The decade-old technology uses compressed air to shoot a GPS tracker from a launcher mounted on the front of a squad car, and uses magnets and adhesive to stick the tracker to the fleeing vehicle. It’s already in use by police departments across the country. According to the grant application, the bureau would have piloted the launchers on three vehicles and then decided whether to expand the program.

Local police brass have tried in recent years to lessen their reliance on dangerous car chases, instituting new policies limiting their use. As WW reported in September, the number of car chases has plummeted as result, irritating some officers who see them as an effective means to get criminals off the streets.

StarChase’s technology provides an alternative. “This has the potential to obviate the need for high-speed pursuits by police cars through cities and towns, which are very dangerous and kill hundreds each year,” wrote Jay Stanley, an American Civil Liberties Union analyst, in 2014.

The three launchers would have cost a total of $24,300. The rest of the grant money, provided by the U.S. Department of Justice as part of a “smart policing initiative,” was earmarked to be shared with Oregon Health & Science University, spent on overtime and “tire deflation devices,” and used to send six officers to a three-day “mobile surveillance training” in Orange County, Calif.

Allen did not say what the bureau would use the money on instead.

Correction: An earlier version of this article said the bureau currently planned to use the StarChase launchers, based on its grant documents. In fact, the bureau is still evaluating the technology. WW regrets the error.