The 'Grappler' Could Make Lengthy Police Pursuits a Thing of the Past

If this catches on, expect plenty of unhappiness in the spike strip industry.

An Arizona man has spent the last eight years developing a tool that could end police pursuits by ensnaring the rear wheel of a fleeing vehicle. Called the Grappler Police Bumper, the seemingly simple apparatus can be mounted to the front of a police-spec Tahoe or Explorer.

Looking like a giant pool skimmer, the unit consists of extendable, Y-shaped arms holding a heavy-duty nylon net. When the arms are extended and lowered towards the road surface, a pursuing officer drives up behind the suspect’s rear quarter and snags the vehicles’s rear wheel. The cord then wraps around the rear wheel and axle, locking it.

The officer’s vehicle remains tethered to the suspect vehicle, so they can floor the accelerator in vain all they want.

Inventor Leonard Stock told FOX10 Phoenix that he came up with the invention after watching a high-speed pursuit that ended when the suspect’s vehicle t-boned an innocent motorist.

“The options right now are getting in front of a suspect vehicle to deploy tire spikes or using the pit maneuver or some type of smash-up derby style process to stop a vehicle and the officer many times is pinned against a suspect vehicle,” said Stock.

The inventor’s startup company, Stock Enterprises, is now marketing the finished product to law enforcement agencies. If adopted, the Grappler could reduce the threat of injury, death and damage posed by a fleeing suspect. That includes damage to police vehicles, which would no doubt be weighed when considering a Grappler purchase.

There’s no price tag on the system as of yet. Stock Enterprises says it expects to have a per-unit price finalized by November 23.

[Image: Stock Enterprises/ YouTube]