Colorado State Patrol (CSP) is touting the success of a device that was developed by a roofer to stop fleeing suspects. It's called the grappler.
"I was watching the pursuit shows and it was especially rough pursuit and went to sleep that night. And I just woke up suddenly with this image of a strap going around a tire," Leonard Stock, inventor and president of Grappler Police Bumper, said. "I was a roofing contractor and I was in roofing for 30 years, so wasn't exactly the likely person to come up with a device like this."
Approximately 50 agencies across the country use the grappler, according to Stock, with 600+ successful "grapples."
The Colorado State Patrol told Denver7 it's rolled out 26 of the devices statewide, with 72 successful grapples since August 2021 and no injuries so far.
"The grappler is a tool that yes, we have found to be exceptionally effective to maximize the safety when we're actually apprehending suspects," CSP Captain Michael Ryan, commander of the BATTLE Program, said.
Stock said through its use across the country, Grappler Police Bumper has discovered uses for the device aside from criminal suspects.
"There's been a few silver alerts that had Dementia or something and they were just running through red lights. One of the police departments came up behind them and grappled them and brought them to a safe stop," Stock said.
It's also been safer for law enforcement to use.
"If you compare it to a PIT maneuver, deploying tire spikes puts an officer in a dangerous position," Stock said.
Do the numbers support that?
Federal data shows more people were killed in 2022 in police pursuits than during any year on record, Scripps News reported.
There were 577 deaths nationwide, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That's a 40% jump compared to 2019.
Scripps News
Police chase deaths reach record highs in the US, new data shows
The policies for police pursuits vary from department to department, but in a new report the Police Executive Research Forum says chases should be "rare" and only used for a "limited and serious set of circumstances."
