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Editor: Bob Battle
Profession: DUI Defense Lawyer

Although these posts about the latest technology for traffic police are starting to sound like a gadget straight out of a meeting between James Bond and Q, Henrico County Police are testing a new device that will shoot a dart at the fleeing car and send a GPS signal to the police. Police hope to eliminate dangerous high speed car chases with fleeing motorists.

"You can take speed out of the equation," said Trevor Fischbach, the Virginia Beach-based company's vice president of business development and sales. "If you can tag [the suspect's car] and track it, you don't have to chase it."

The devices are expensive, priced at $1,200 to $1,500. Other law enforcement officials have criticized the device saying that the fleeing motorist could ditch the car and escape capture.

But wait- there's more... more high-tech law enforcement toys being tested, that is. The Chesterfield County police chief favors an experimental device that can disable a car's electronics, causing it to stop.

"I've been watching this for 10 years," said Chesterfield County Police Chief Carl R. Baker. "I think the [better] technology is for actually killing the car's computer."

Several companies are developing directed-energy systems designed to disable cars using bursts of microwave energy. Most cars built since the 1970s have some sort of microprocessor-controlled system, and a directed power surge could burn out those microprocessors.

Once disabled, the vehicle gradually would slow to a stop, allowing police to approach and apprehend the driver.

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