Skip to main content

US police use GPS tracker darts

Police in Florida and Iowa are using a GPS tracking system that shoots a dart-like tracker at a target vehicle, enabling them to remain a safe distance behind, but still have a way of tracking the vehicle’s location and speed.
September 2, 2014 Read time: 1 min

Police in Florida and Iowa are using a GPS tracking system that shoots a dart-like tracker at a target vehicle, enabling them to remain a safe distance behind, but still have a way of tracking the vehicle’s location and speed.

The system being enables police to shoot the GPS tracker from an air cannon that is attached to the front of a police car; the tracker sticks to the vehicle and tags it. Once the GPS tracker is attached to the vehicle, police are able to monitor its speed and location from a remote location via a real time map, without the need for a potentially dangerous high speed chase.

Related Content

  • Traffex snapshot reveals enforcement advances
    July 24, 2017
    An indication of just how far beyond spot speed and red light the enforcement sector has progressed was evident in the range of new and improved equipment on display at the recent Traffex event in Birmingham. One of the key trends, particularly in the UK but also evident elsewhere, is the increase in average speed enforcement, according to RedSpeed’s managing director Robert Ryan, who predicts a big increase in installations this year. “The price point has reached a level authorities can afford,” he says, a
  • What's next for traffic management and data collection?
    January 26, 2012
    As the technologies and stakeholders in traffic management evolve, what can we expect to see happening in the coming years? For many, the conversation of the moment is just how, and how far, the newer technologies and services provided principally by the private sector should be allowed to intrude into the realms of traffic management.
  • Machine vision’s image of road management’s future
    June 11, 2015
    Q-Free’s Marco Sinnema looks at how the commoditisation of high-quality vision-based solutions is widening their application. Machine vision technology’s entry into the ITS/traffic management sector has followed a classic top-down path. This is unsurprising given the extremely demanding performance criteria which are the standard in its market of origin, manufacturing processing. Very high image qualities combined with frame rates often in the hundreds per second range resulted in vision systems with capabi
  • Transmax trials emergency vehicle ‘green wave’
    December 6, 2013
    Existing equipment used in Australian emergency vehicle ‘green wave’ trial. Despite the lights and sirens, accidents between the motoring public and emergency vehicles on their way to/from the scene of an incident are relatively frequent. Figures from various sources indicate that road accidents are the second most frequent cause of death for on-duty fire fighter fatalities and that more than 90% of ambulance and fire engine accidents occur when the lights are on and the sirens wailing. Other studies indica