Another tool in high-speed chases: GPS darts that Oak Brook police can shoot onto fleeing vehicles
An alarming surge in drivers' fleeing from police across the suburbs, often at dangerous speeds, has law enforcement leaders troubled, state lawmakers searching for answers and the driving public worried about safety on the roads.
But what if there were a way police could avoid those kinds of risky pursuits and still catch the bad guys?
That's the idea Oak Brook police had in mind when they began using new technology known as GPS darts.
The darts - cylindrical projectiles that contain a GPS tracker and a transmitter - can be fired at a fleeing vehicle from either a launcher mounted to the front of a police vehicle or a handheld launcher that looks like a cross between a rifle and a Super Soaker water gun.
Coated with a strong adhesive and holding a powerful magnet, the dart sticks to the fleeing vehicle, allowing police to fall back and track it digitally from a safe distance, rather than engaging in a chase that could endanger officers, suspects and innocent bystanders.
"Our goal is to avoid pursuits whenever possible, but we're also not going to allow people to flee from police without any consequences," Chief Brian Strockis told us this week.
Strockis said the department first acquired the technology a few years ago and has successfully deployed it in a variety of ways since. But they've never used it as often as they are now.
As we wrote last week, the suburbs have seen a spike in high-speed police chases over the past year, with DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin recently calling it an "epidemic."
In DuPage, where Oak Brook is located, the number of aggravated fleeing and eluding prosecutions has risen from 51 in 2020 to 82 in 2022. And with 14 last month alone, Berlin's office is on pace to top its 2022 caseload.
Manufactured by Virginia-based StarChase LLC, the GPS darts are used by police agencies in more than 30 states, according to the company. But Oak Brook is the only department in Illinois to use them, Strockis said. That's expected to change, he added, with Willowbrook police recently ordering the technology.
Strockis is quick to point out that GPS darts alone aren't going to stop drivers from fleeing, nor will they stop every fleeing driver.
"It's another tool in the toolbox," Strockis said. "No one tool is going to stop this entirely."
That's why - in addition to planning and proactive policing - his department continues to seek new technologies to assist its officers. The latest are remote-controlled stop sticks - tire deflation strips that are laid across the roadway in front of a fleeing vehicle to puncture its tires and end a chase.
While standard strips must be thrown out in front of the vehicle by hand, putting an officer in harm's way, these can be launched remotely from a box placed along the side of the road.
Strockis believes the department's use of these technologies is paying off. While Oak Brook's large retail presence - highlighted by Oakbrook Center mall - makes the community a magnet for out-of-town thieves, he said stores in the West suburb are seeing theft-related losses at lower levels than their counterparts elsewhere.
"We're trying to send a message that you might think you can get away with this in other places, but if you come here, we're going to stop you," he said.
One more thing
Despite the high-tech approach and commitment to catching those who flee, Strockis said the public should know his department puts people's safety first when it comes to deciding when and how to pursue a fleeing suspect.
Because of that, he said, his officers call off more chases, or decide not to initiate them at all, more often than they see them through to completion.
A bust for the record books
A tripped burglary alarm at a suburban home last week led to what authorities are calling one of the largest recoveries of stolen vehicle parts by law enforcement in state history.
According to the Cook County sheriff's office, patrol officers responding to an alarm May 7 at a home in South suburban Worth Township spotted through a backyard fence what appeared to be hundreds of catalytic converters in a metal crate. More were stacked along the fence, sheriff's police said.
A joint investigation by the sheriff's office and the Illinois Statewide Auto Theft Taskforce linked the residence to Ramsy Sandoka, a 40-year-old tow company operator who, officials said, is not licensed to buy, sell, recycle or possess catalytic converters.
On March 9, police executed a search warrant at Sandoka's residence and recovered 612 catalytic converters of all shapes and sizes, sheriff's police said. Some appeared to be recently cut from vehicles, officials said.
Sandoka was charged Wednesday with aggravated possession of a stolen vehicle, a felony, and misdemeanor counts of failure to keep recyclable purchase records, selling/purchasing catalytic converters and violation of recycle metal law.
Catalytic converters, a part of a vehicle exhaust system, have been targeted by thieves at unprecedented rates in recent years because they contain rare and precious metals that are valuable on the black market. According to data from State Farm, catalytic converter thefts have increased more than 400% since 2019 nationwide and Illinois ranks third in the nation when it comes to thefts.
Memorial ceremony
The Kane County Chiefs of Police Association will have its annual Law Enforcement Appreciation Ceremony next week.
It starts at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 18, at the House of God, on the campus of Mooseheart Child City and School, on Route 31 between North Aurora and Batavia.
The guest speaker will be Hampshire Police Chief Douglas Pann.
The event is open to the public.
The association notes 25 officers have died as a result of their jobs in Kane County, from Geneva Constables Joseph H. Grant and John R. McNett, shot to death in 1855 while taking three burglary suspects to jail, through Aurora Officer Brian Shields and Sgt. Kenneth J. Thurman Jr., who died last year of COVID-19.
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