Stop high-speed chases with digital governor

While I appreciate Illinois Senate Minority Leader John Curran’s attempt to stop high-speed chases with Senate Bill 1807, which makes the act of fleeing the police by car a Class 4 felony, I’m afraid it’s effectiveness as a behavioral modifier and deterrent may be inflated and overstated.

Rather than threaten ersatz race car drivers by threatening legal action, why not use engineering technology instead?

Allow me to take you back to your high school driver’s education class where the football coach in the passenger seat enjoyed the power of stomping on a special footbrake — a mechanical governor — if you either did something wrong or failed to follow his instructions.

Let’s make this a federal issue and encourage Congressional legislators to require an automated/digital/electronic governor to be installed in all new cars. How would they work? Simple. Anyone driving a first-responder emergency vehicle — police car, ambulance or fire engine — can press a button on the dashboard that sends a signal up to 50 yards to the fleeing vehicle’s electronic control module to disable it, thereby shutting off power to the engine, exhaust and fuel system. The speeding car slows to a halt.

Congress can find an incentive to “encourage” automakers to install these devices in all cars sold in or brought into the U.S. Further, citizens can be “encouraged” to have their digital governor inspected frequently — either during driver’s license renewal, environmental/pollution control testing or annual routine maintenance. Failure to comply could generate a hefty fine.

Does this represent an encroachment on free enterprise and interstate commerce? The government already established a precedent by forcing the switch to digital signal (as in paid subscription) television from analog signal television, which was “free.”

Thankfully, this technology won’t have to stifle the low-speed chases that entertain news-hungry coastal Southern California residents.

R. Dana Barlow

Schaumburg