Moraine police started using StarChase in June and have already seen a positive affect.
“We’ve had numerous success stories with it,” Moraine police Sgt. Andrew Parish said. “We’ve seen it reduce our pursuit miles and minutes and hours drastically just in the short time we’ve used it.”
A sergeant used StarChase on Nov. 19 to end a pursuit in which a motorist was driving recklessly at high speeds.
The sergeant attempted to stop the vehicle, which was reported stolen out of Fairborn, but it fled.
After pursuing the vehicle for about a minute and 30 seconds, the sergeant launched a StarChase tag, which stuck to the back of the fleeing vehicle. The sergeant was then able to end the pursuit.
The GPS tag allowed police to continue to track the vehicle. After 27 minutes, the vehicle came to an abrupt stop after it was involved in a crash near North Snyder and Little Richmond roads in Trotwood, according to police.
Moraine officers were able to help Montgomery County Sheriff’s deputies, who had responded to the crash.
Franklin police recently installed StarChase on some of the department’s cruisers and are in the process of training officers. Chief Adam Colon said the program should be implemented in the next few weeks.
Colon first heard about StarChase about a decade ago while he was with Riverside police. He saw the program promoted on LinkedIn more recently and thought it could be useful after watching videos online.
The chief believes StarChase can help mitigate risks during police pursuits while still enabling officers to catch suspects.
“We thought that would be beneficial for us in criminal law enforcement endeavors,” Colon said.
Once the launchers were fitted to cruisers and officers went through training, they went to the Warren County Airport and took turns using StarChase on an old police cruiser.
“It’s pretty simple,” Colon said. “You get behind the car, you prime the device and then you fire off the round, which attaches to the vehicle.”
Police have the option to fire one or two tags at a time. They can fire the tags from inside cruisers or with a fob while outside the cruiser.
Colon said the fob option can help in traffic stops in which a person may have a warrant and tries to drive off once the officer gets out of the cruiser.
“This also gives the capability that as they’re walking up, (the officer) can deploy it if they see that person putting (the vehicle) in drive,” he said.
The GPS tracking information can be shared with other law enforcement officers that don’t have StarChase.
“There’s a platform our dispatch center can log into, and they can then monitor in real time where the GPS unit is,” Colon said. “They can share a link to other dispatch centers. So, we can call Montgomery County or Kettering and then they can also log in and they can monitor if the vehicle is coming into their jurisdiction.”
He said Franklin is partnering with Moraine to share GPS information, and a Dayton police lieutenant reached out about accessing the platform. Other law enforcement agencies also have contacted the department to get more information about StarChase.
In addition to StarChase, Franklin is among departments including Kettering to have Flock safety cameras to read license plates installed in the city, and Franklin also has Axom cameras with license plate reading technology in cruisers.
“We’re excited about the technology and partnering with (StarChase),” Colon said. “We think it’s going to help us in our efforts in law enforcement.”
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