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Bold new plan for police pursuits:
Constable Peter McAulay, 24, was hit early [on the morning of Sept. 27] after setting up road spikes to try and stop two teenagers in an allegedly stolen vehicle. A 16-year-old boy and 15-year-old girl have been charged with attempted murder after Constable McAulay was rushed to Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital with serious head injuries and broken bones and fractures.
After the horrific crash, Queensland Police Union President Ian Leavers is calling for remote vehicle immobilisers to become mandatory in new cars.
"I started in 2012. I have written to three successive prime ministers but it is now time for action, bipartisan support. With remote engine immobilisers there will never be a need for a police pursuit," Mr Leavers told Today. "The primary situation is to protect lives and property. It can improve safety. It is a great thing. It is a no-brainer. We need to change the Australian design regulation. Within five to 10 years there will never be another police pursuit. We will be able to disable any stolen car at any point in time and ensure safety. It is commonsense."
The proposed engine immobilisers wouldn't just be able to stop a car in its tracks, police would also be able to track vehicles through GPS.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 04 2018, @06:51AM (16 children)
It's really odd that police helicopters in most countries seem to be unarmed.
Firing at a vehicle is much safer if done from above, and we've been able to do this for ages. You fire a 50 caliber machine gun vertically down into the engine.
It's at least safer than spike strips, horizontal gunfire, and using a cop car to whack the other vehicle out of control. We do all those things, so no complaints about safety please. It's all relative.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday October 04 2018, @07:09AM
Sounds like good jobs for the boys who get bored after coming back from Afghanistan.
Get the police an attack chopper. I think I saw an old documentary about it. There's no way it could be problematic to blow a car to pieces at high speed with ordinance that will mostly go through/around and create jobs for pothole repairmen, who will have to fish the cops' tires out first.
SOP for dead body on the highway is complete closure for at least 3 hours. Gonna be popular quickly on the 405.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 04 2018, @07:11AM (11 children)
0) Machine gun? The cops are supposed to arrest their suspects where possible not execute them. It's called due process.
1) A helicopter isn't actually a great platform for shooting at stuff accurately. There aren't that many top snipers in the world: https://coastguardnews.com/hitron-snipers-taking-on-smugglers/2008/06/04/ [coastguardnews.com]
Lastly there's no need to chase most of these road vehicles. You just need to identify the suspects well enough.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by darkfeline on Thursday October 04 2018, @07:24AM (1 child)
>A helicopter isn't actually a great platform for shooting at stuff accurately.
For a human, maybe. I would find it hard to believe if a computer stabilized gun couldn't hit a target the size of an engine, given modern gun stabilization on tanks and naval ships.
My question is, how the hell was the officer hit setting up spikes? Was he running out in front of the car with the spike strip in hand? How did he expect that to turn out?
It'd be trivial to just load spike strips into some kind of launcher and just launch them across the road, if officers getting hit laying spikes were a real problem.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 04 2018, @08:31AM
Great plan! Let's hook a frogbot up to a helicopter, allow a human to choose the target and let her rip. What could possibly go wrong?
For every better convenience link the bot up to the net so the footage can be posted real time to friendface and youtube (youbot?) and allow the internet to vote on its actions.
We could call it: The Suspectinator
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 04 2018, @07:52AM (4 children)
Which is why I proposed using sharks with lasers.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 04 2018, @08:29AM (3 children)
This is racism against helicopters.
I sexually Identify as an Attack Helicopter. Ever since I was a boy I dreamed of soaring over the oilfields dropping hot sticky loads on disgusting foreigners. People say to me that a person being a helicopter is Impossible and I'm fucking retarded but I don't care, I'm beautiful. I'm having a plastic surgeon install rotary blades, 30 mm cannons and AMG-114 Hellfire missiles on my body. From now on I want you guys to call me "Apache" and respect my right to kill from above and kill needlessly. If you can't accept me you're a heliphobe and need to check your vehicle privilege. Thank you for being so understanding.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday October 04 2018, @11:54AM
You are now ApaChe.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2, Troll) by VLM on Thursday October 04 2018, @01:19PM (1 child)
I heard Kavanaugh lovingly caressed the canopy of a helicopter in a non-consensual manner 35 years ago, the helo said it was OK but she was consuming huge quantities of ethanol gasoline at the time thus too intoxicated to legally consent #BelieveAllRotaryWingAircraft
(Score: 3, Funny) by Bot on Thursday October 04 2018, @03:29PM
> read Kava's diary for the day
> "instructions unclear, hand stuck in the tail rotor"
BUSTED!
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by Snospar on Thursday October 04 2018, @08:08AM (1 child)
Helicopters are fine shooting platforms, I saw it on that documentary "S.W.A.T." on the TV. The shooter just has to remember to say to the pilot "Hold her steady now" and then any shot (not matter what the distance) is possible.
Kinda makes you wonder why the pilot's don't just keep the helicopter steady at all times!
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(Score: 3, Funny) by richtopia on Thursday October 04 2018, @08:23AM
I've tested computer simulators for this type of scenario. While the helicopter makes a good shooting platform, I've found it more effective to jump from said helicopter and pull a parachute out of your ass immediately before landing on the roof of the vehicle.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 04 2018, @08:45AM (1 child)
This has to be the most sensible answer. Don't chase cars/bikes. Tag them, identify them, and track them. They have to stop somewhere, sometime.
By all means, fence them in, form a net around them, but understand that they can and will stop eventually.
Do we have the tech yet to tag a car at speed to track it?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Thursday October 04 2018, @03:00PM
We once were moving in that direction. Between about 1998, and 2001, there were some highly publicized incidents, in which innocents were killed during police chases. There was talk about stopping police chases. Or, high speed chases. Sure, chase down the car doing 60 in a 40 mph zone. It's just some dumbass who needs a reminder. But, that 100 mph chase through a school zone? Every_single_son_of_a_bitch involved in that chase needs to see the inside of a prison. Suspect, cops, and anyone else controlling one of those vehicles.
The talk never got very far, but it was slowly gaining momentum. It seemed that maybe in another five to ten years, high speed chases might end. Some smaller towns had already enacted policies against high speed chases.
Then, that raghead had a bunch of fruitloops drive airliners into the WTC and the Pentagon. And, that was the end of that.
As of 9/12/01, things were back to "normal", with testosterone and adrenaline making all the chase decisions. Rationality went back out the window.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 04 2018, @03:25PM (2 children)
"Firing at a vehicle is much safer if done from above"
Er. No.
Moving shooter, moving target, variable distance, variable windspeed, variable angle of gravity, variable G loading on the shooter, not to mention turbulence. Even expert marksmen have difficulty with these shots. It is a very rare skill. The U.S. hosts a top sniper competition for NATO countries. They've televised it a few times. The only guys who make this shot regularly, are the Americans. And that is because we train specifically for anti-insurgency more than anybody else.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 04 2018, @06:29PM (1 child)
Seriously, "variable windspeed"???? WTF. You're out of your mind.
The shot is taken from the minimum safe helicopter height, aiming straight down. In an area with normal buildings and trees, that height is about 50 feet. Wind and turbulence will do nothing to 50 caliber at a distance of 50 feet.
Neither the vehicle nor the helicopter are moving erratically. (if they do for a moment, wait a bit) Both travel along a highway, one right above the other. There isn't any interseting G loading.
Seriously, WTF? This isn't some sniper shot going horizontally for miles in Afghanistan. It's a vertical shot, directly down, from a stabilized gun turret at close range. For 50 caliber, it is practically point-blank.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 04 2018, @07:29PM
Yes, but are you sure that, just in case, it might not be a good idea to instead use a radar-guided missile to disable the suspect's vehicle?