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Four years ago we wrote about the Grappler Bumper, a deployable device that can be added to the front of a police car and used to safely end car chases. It was created by inventor Leonard Stock after he watched news footage of a police chase that injured an innocent bystander.
It appears the device has gained traction, no pun intended, and is now in use by law enforcement agencies; the website for the bumper reports over 400 instances when it was used by law enforcement since being launched in 2018.
Previously we'd only seen the demo video, but this is news footage from a recent police chase in Arizona where the Grappler Bumper ended things safely:
Pretty fascinating. I do wonder, though: Can the captured vehicle still reverse enough to smash into the cruiser? I suppose it depends on which wheels are driving the captured car.
In any case, here's the demo video:
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I’m a lapsed industrial designer. I was born in NYC and figured I’d die there, but a few years ago I abandoned New York to live on a farm in the countryside with my wife. We have six dogs.
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Footage of Deployable Grappler Bumper Safely Ending a Police Chase
The second best part (after safely ending a chase) is that the driver will be totally confused by what the police car is doing at first, and then totally confused by their inability to drive away after getting snagged. Though I imagine that will change as this becomes more widespread.