Vehicle interdiction device and method

Abstract

A motor vehicle interdiction device with an elastic bladder inserted by hand or fired as an infrared seeking missile into an automobile exhaust pipe and inflated with a compressed gas cartridge.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] This invention is directed to a device and method that allows law enforcement personnel to disable a motor vehicle to prevent it from fleeing and to stop a fleeing vehicle. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] Vehicle chases are common when the person driving a vehicle tries to escape the law enforcement personnel by driving away at a high rate of speed. A study involving interviews conducted in jail cells found that over half of the inmates were willing to run at all costs from the police and almost two-thirds of them believed they would not get caught, while studies show that police are successful in apprehending suspects in a fleeing vehicle in almost ninety percent of the chases. The tools and methods available to law enforcement to stop a fleeing motor vehicle are woefully inadequate. In some situations a chase begins after a police officer approaches a motor vehicle. On these occasions prevention of a possible chase could save property damage and / or...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0005] It is an object of an embodiment of the present invention to provide a device and method that allows a law enforcement officer to disable a fleeing motor vehicle in a fashion that is safe to all concerned including bystanders.

Problems solved by technology

The tools and methods available to law enforcement to stop a fleeing motor vehicle are woefully inadequate.

On these occasions prevention of a possible chase could save property damage and / or bodily injury, but no vehicle interdiction devices are available that can be implemented from the rear of the motor vehicle without damaging the vehicle.

The law enforcement personnel are often in a “no win” situation for if they try to chase the vehicle, it results in a collision about one-third of the time with property damage in twenty percent of the chases and, of even greater concern, bodily injury of the police and innocent persons in equal numbers about thirteen percent of the chases.

Further, many chases result in some litigation against the public safety department and it is not clear that the convicted criminals are generally sentenced to a significantly longer actual jail term if they run from law enforcement.

On the other hand, law enforcement personnel can hardly merely allow the escapee to flee and be allowed to escape.

In the past, police officers have shot the tires of the fleeing vehicle, but that technique has been essentially abandoned due to safety concerns.

There are numerous reports of a criminal traveling at a high rate of speed losing control of the vehicle trying to avoid the strips with terrible results of bodily and property injury in some cases to the police officers laying out the strips.

Further, it is difficult in most situations to safely get in front of the fleeing motor vehicle to deploy the device, which once deployed is a substantial risk to other vehicle drivers.

The improvement is improved accuracy and safety, but the device does not appear to be risk free in that any device capable of puncturing a tire could inflict substantial damage if it struck a collateral unintended target, such as an innocent bystander.

A vehicle capturing device that is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,839,759 requires the chasing vehicle to contact and latch on to the fleeing vehicle with all the attendant risks of injury.

It is well known that plugging up the exhaust of an internal combustion engine, will quickly cause the engine to stall and will disable the vehicle powered by the engine until the plug is removed.

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