Motor vehicle chases are a relatively rare but particularly trying part of law enforcement processes. High-speed chases involving law enforcement officers in pursuit of criminals provide a serious threat to the lives of the officers, the pursued, and bystanders unintentionally in the path of the chase. Thus the primary concern of law enforcement officers during such chases is to stop or disable the pursued vehicle as quickly as possible.
One (1) common method utilized in such situations is spike strips, which are installed on roads or streets at a location further ahead on the current path of the pursued vehicle. Such spike strips are effective at stopping a vehicle when the vehicle's tires come in contact with the spike strip. However, in many cases, such contact is typically unlikely as the fleeing vehicle may be aware of such practices and will have ample visual warning to avoid these strips.
Additionally, such spike strips are dangerous for the officers who are deploying them and may unintentionally endanger other law enforcement vehicles and the vehicles of innocent citizens.
Various attempts have been made to provide selectively deployable tire deflating systems. Examples of these attempts can be seen by reference to several U.S. patents. U.S. Pat. No. 5,839,849 issued in the name of Pacholok et al., describes a mechanical tire deflating device including a compressed gas deployment mechanism which release a projectile on a tether. Once fully deployed, the projectile automatically deploys a plurality of spike arms in order to disable a target vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,474,903, issued in the name of Marts et al., describes a barrier strip with a plurality of retractable tire-puncture spikes with a selectable control mechanism which allows a user to quick expose and lock the spikes and subsequent retract the spikes as desired.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,527,475, issued in the name of Lowrie, describes a quick stop deployment system and method which includes a pair of tire deflation systems deployable on either side of a vehicle in order to inhibit progress of a vehicle in an adjacent lane.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives, each of these references suffer from one (1) or more of the aforementioned disadvantages. Many such devices require the device to be pre-disposed at a fixed location prior to use. Also, many such devices do not cover a sufficiently broad area when deployed which may inhibit the effectiveness of the device. Furthermore, many such devices are difficult to deploy and to reset due to complex, non-reversible release mechanisms. In addition, many such devices are unstable when connected to a pursuit vehicle and pose danger to those operating the device. Accordingly, there exists a need for a deployable spike strip system without the disadvantages as described above. The development of the present invention substantially departs from the conventional solutions and in doing so fulfills this need.
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USPTO Backgrounds