On the Job 

In an effort to prevent high-speed pursuits, the Lucas County Sheriff’s Office purchased a high-tech solution: GPS tags and launchers which reduce pursuit risks to officers and bystanders.

Five cruisers have been outfitted with double-barreled launchers that use compressed air to deploy sticky tracking tags at a distance of a few car lengths. Deputies will be able to fire GPS tags onto a fleeing vehicle and then ease back from the pursuit. Responding units and dispatchers can instead follow the suspect’s vehicle remotely at safe speeds, planning where and how deputies will make the arrest.

“The tracking is in real time,” said Lt. Matt Luettke, who oversees the officers who will be using the technology. The pursuit is “street by street, turn by turn using GPS,” he said. “Not a procession of cars driving behind a suspect vehicle but rather cars being sent to an area where the suspect vehicle is going or has stopped.”

In addition to traffic enforcement, other applications for the GPS tracking systems include special task forces such as auto theft and DUI, arms and narcotics trafficking, human trafficking and smuggling — cases that carry a high likelihood of evasion.

Using money from the Federal Law Enforcement Trust Fund, the sheriff’s office bought five launchers. The systems are about $5,000 and, as the GPS tags are used, the department can exchange them for new ones at no cost, based on the optional service package.