California is famous for its high-speed chases, both real and fake.
One of my favorite fictional ones: Sean Connery absolutely tearing through San Francisco in a Humvee in the 1996 blockbuster “The Rock.”
Connery’s character, an escaped convict, blitzes through yellow cab taxis and pop-up stands as sparks fly and the FBI gives chase.
Then there are the real ones, and watching them live on TV is always an L.A. pastime.
But a new tool could help the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department end chases before they really begin.
The agency is expanding use of its Grappler system; a mounted device geared at eliminating pursuits and the damage and injuries that ensue.
I saw the Grappler in action, and spoke with Riverside deputies and experts for a report earlier this month. Here are some excerpts.
The Grappler forces speeding cars to stop
The roughly $5,000-per-unit system is relatively simple.
A pursuing vehicle pulls within 5 feet of a fleeing car or truck. The pursuing agent presses a button, unlocking the device attached to their front bumper, and a net springs out.
“The net is designed to entangle itself on any of the rotating objects in the rear of the car,” Riverside County Sheriff’s Lt. Jason Santistevan said. “It could be the tire, it could be the axle.”
The entangled vehicle is then supposed to stop quickly, leading to shorter chases and less potential for injuries and damage.
The device is retractable and reusable.
The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department was the first in California to use one
The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department became the first in California to employ the device, equipping two vehicles by mid-2025 and adding eight more vehicles six months later.
The department now offers Grappler training.
Sheriff’s Deputy David Orlik, a K-9 team member, said the Grappler bumper makes little difference in the driving of the vehicle, and he prefers the net to a spike strip, which involves risk for the deputy or officer placing such a device on the ground.
Orlik said the device enables “preemptive grapples,” where law enforcement vehicles pull within deployment distance of a fleeing suspect without turning on lights or sirens. They can then release the Grappler without the suspect being aware, he said, and prevent chases.
It’s too new for a full analysis of effectiveness
Geoffrey P. Alpert, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of South Carolina, has researched high-risk police activities for more than 30 years.
He says different strategies and devices are employed nationwide, but analysis of the Grappler is nascent.
Those assessments come “only through data,” he said. “There just isn’t much out there for the Grappler.”
But he noted that what makes the new device appealing is its manufacturer’s claim that it can stop pursuits quickly.
“Anything is better than chasing,” he said. “The higher the speeds, the higher the variables and the higher the risks.”
Its inventor tested a prototype on his wife
The Grappler’s inventor, Leonard Stock, has no law enforcement background, according to reporting from Virginia-based WHSV.
He was a Peoria, Ariz.-based roofer troubled by televised police pursuits “that featured several tragic endings of innocent motorists being injured,” according to his company’s website.
Then he appeared to have a Dr. Emmett Brown moment, if you’re familiar with the famed fictional scientist from “Back to the Future.”
Brown envisioned the flux capacitor, the device that made a time-traveling car possible, in a dream.
Stock also received inspiration during sleep.
In about a week’s time, he “welded a contraption on the front of his truck and convinced his wife Frances to drive the getaway car — the family Suburban,” the company website said. They tested the device on abandoned dirt roads around Arizona.
By 2018, Phoenix Police purchased the first Grappler system. Over 150 departments throughout the nation now employ at least one Grappler.
From a dream to reality in about 20 years’ time. Great Scott!
Check out the full story here.
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