WHITE SETTLEMENT, Texas — Last Friday, officers with the White Settlement Police Department saw one of the department's newest investments pay off.
According to Chief Chris Cook, the department is outfitting more than a dozen squad cars with sticky GPS darts that aim to avoid the dangers of a high-speed chase.
For the first time, one of those darts got used and worked really well.
Developed by StarChase, the GPS darts can be fired from the front of a cruiser toward a fleeing vehicle so that it sticks. It allows officers to disengage from a potential high-speed pursuit where dispatch can monitor where the suspect goes safely.
The James Bond-esque gadgets are pricey--each installation costs around $20,000, and a subscription to monitor the darts is around $1,500 annually per vehicle.
Too much money for a larger department, but for White Settlement? It's an investment, says Cook. So far, in 2024, six have died due to high-speed police chases in North Texas. Four were killed in Dallas when an Irving police chase tragically ended after a suspect vehicle fell from an overpass.
In Parker County, two on a motorcycle being chased by police died Thursday along I- 20 when the bike struck an innocent third party.
In Fort Worth, two were hospitalized when an allegedly drunk driver led police on a high-speed chase up and down West 7th.
"Not only is this safer for motorists--it's safer for officers," Cook said. "It's very intuitive and easy--and cops like easy. Bottom line--if everybody goes home at night, everyone's safe--that's a success."
Last Friday--White Settlement officers got a safety alert about a stolen blue Kia Optima potentially moving through their city. An officer located it at a stoplight, fired one of those GPS darts and disengaged safely.
Dash camera footage shows the dart deployment sticking right on the back of the Kia. At dispatch, officers monitored the dart as it moved toward Fort Worth.
"It shows which direction they're going, what the speed is, everything," Cook said. "When the car came to a stop--they were broadcasting that information."
Once the vehicle stopped in Fort Worth, White Settlement and Cowtown officers pulled up and detained the driver. A twist to this story, though; the driver wasn't a thief. He owned the car, but the Kia was recently reported stolen, and the owner recovered it without notifying police that it had been found. The driver was let go and faced no charges.
"We've seen that kind of thing happen before--but it still demonstrated the usefulness of this technology. We did it in training, right? But it's different in a real-world environment," Cook said.