A way to reduce high-speed chases? Columbia could consider tech after pregnant woman killed in crash

Ashley Brown was roughly 27 weeks pregnant when she was killed as a bystander to a high-speed police chase on North Main Street in early April.

The Columbia police were in pursuit of a suspect who was wanted in the fatal shooting of a man at J.T.’s Kia car dealership earlier that day. Police had been in pursuit for “less than a minute” when an officer crashed into Brown’s vehicle, Columbia Police Chief Skip Holbrook said at the time. The officer was also injured in that crash.

Now, a Columbia city councilman wants the police department to test two new technologies that he says might help avoid dangerous chases in the future.

“I can’t speak on the situation from a fault perspective,” Councilman Tyler Bailey said. But “if we can use technology that can assist officers in apprehending suspects while also decreasing the odds that an officer or the public could be harmed in that process, that’s something we should explore.”

Bailey hopes the City Council will support pilot programs for two technologies designed to make police chases less dangerous.

The first technology is called StarChase and is marketed as a “high speed pursuit alternative.” The company specializes in projectile GPS devices that can be attached to the vehicle police wish to pursue.

The GPS tracker can be launched by police from car-mounted or handheld devices at the beginning of a pursuit, and then allow police to track their suspect without having to stay within eyesight of the wanted motorist.

The second device Bailey hopes the city will test is called the Grappler Police Bumper, which would allow a police vehicle to attach a net-like object to the back wheels of the vehicle they are in pursuit of.

Bailey doesn’t have a sense of what the two technologies would cost the city, but he’s asking his colleagues on City Council to discuss the topic in future committee meetings.

“Things cost money,” Bailey said, admitting that he doesn’t know yet if the city will have the budget for the new technologies, but he wants to get that information. The city’s current budget for the police department is $47 million.

He said the first step would be agreeing on some form of pilot program to see if both or either technology could be useful for the police department.

Bailey added that the goal is not to eliminate high-speed chases – he acknowledges that sometimes they may be necessary. He also added that the Columbia Police Department is good at “21st-century policing,” so he believes there will be support for trying something new as well.

Other cities in the U.S. have already started trying out the equipment. New Haven, Connecticut, spent $85,000 on a -year pilot of StarChase for 14 devices in 2022. Renewing the program would cost New Haven an additional $15,000 each year, according to reporting from the New Haven Independent.

A Minnesota county purchased three StarChase devices, spending $4,700 on each unit, plus $1,200 per year for the GPS tracking services, according to reports from the Minnesota TV station Kare 11.

The Grappler technology has also been estimated to cost around $6,000 per unit, plus roughly $600 to replace the net once used, according to the Albuquerque Journal, which reports the Albuquerque Police Department is testing those devices.

That outlet also reports that use of the Grappler led to a stolen truck flipping over, sending two people to the hospital.

Bailey said he doesn’t know if either or both devices will be a fit for Columbia, but he hopes the city is willing to explore the question. He is proposing the ideas at the Columbia City Council’s regular meeting Tuesday.