LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs

There are high speed police chases (100mph+) in Los Angeles — no exaggeration — on an almost daily basis. Air support is the primary defense tool for law enforcement.

It's so bad that the local TV stations have their own choppers and a dedicated on-screen UI tailored for the chases with GPS-based tracking and speed.

If you're lucky you can catch one of the many YouTube live streams. Here's one from....two days ago: https://www.youtube.com/live/uGiJU-FlpdE

I mean in most other places people have simply realized that unless there is an immediate risk to life, the only thing high speed police chases do is create that very risk.

Nicely contrasts with all the news about the omnipresent license plate scanners - it's just pointless, don't take the risk, arrest them at your leisure.

They get away from time to time from the airship. Two in one week this past august and I don't think they ever caught the suspects. One drove under an overpass and fled on foot, the other entered LAX airspace which requires waiting on clearance from ATC and got away somehow after that. I don't know why they don't just shoot a magnetic dart at the car with a gps tracker on it.

> There are high speed police chases (100mph+) in Los Angeles — no exaggeration — on an almost daily basis.

How is anyone driving at that speeds in LA traffic?

It would have to be a very special dart. Cars are mostly aluminum and foam. A piercing dart would be dangerous and a magnet would really work.

Outside certain high performance cars, most cars have steel body panels.

> I don't know why they don't just shoot a magnetic dart at the car with a gps tracker on it.

Hitting a car going 100mph with a magnetic dart that and getting it to hit on a metal part, not a window or trim, and specially a steel panel, is not easy at all.

Worth noting that many people who run from the police also have fake or stolen plates.

So your proposal is to just let the criminals run away? And that somehow won't embolden them further?

"Once this baby hits 88mph, we're home free!"

Air support is used to coordinate with law enforcement up ahead to deploy spikes to end the chase.

You are just repeating empty political talking points that simply don't work in the real world.

These exist!

https://www.thedrive.com/news/police-tag-fleeing-cars-with-g...

https://www.starchase.com/products/vehicle-mounted-gps-launc...

Some steel body panels. Much of a car is made of plastic/urethan type materials, hoods are usually aluminum, some bodies are all aluminum....

Then why do you have so many car chases? That seems like an odd problem. There must be a reason.

In many cases, the driver is not associated with the plates, with the car and/or plates being stolen.

A lot of departments terminate chases very early

I wonder how much of the high-speed chase "scene" is actually fuelled by all the hoopla. (TV broadcasts of soccer/football matches tend not to show streakers on the field for this reason)

I have only been to Germany once, but my assessment was that we have a very different population here.

Personally I prefer Fox 11's coverage of these chases. The guy they have up there is fun to listen to and always sprinkles in comparisons to past chases.

They could learn a few things from the Georgia State Patrol, the undisputed world champions of the PIT.

There's a lot more aluminum than steel on car exteriors these days.

Possible but it seems like the chases are not even a US problem but more a "certain places" problem. I genuinely wonder what the cause of this behavior is.

Basically, letting them run away and then setting up a raid at their house the next morning is safer for everyone. If you can follow them from altitude well enough to do that, you reduce risk dramatically relative to either interception or chase.

> They could learn a few things from the Georgia State Patrol, the undisputed world champions of the PIT.

Why not just open up on them with antitank weaponry? PIT maneuvers are extraordinarily dangerous, especially at high speeds.

OK, one with a big glob of bubblegum on it then.

Buddy, most of these are stolen cars. Do you think they are driving them home and parking it in the driveway?

If you are eluding the cops at 100mph you are a danger to the public, they are not going to let you go home.

>Why not just open up on them with antitank weaponry?

I've heard cops say something similar on body cam footage.

What happens when they miss and hit you in the head instead?

Like an asshole. We've all seen them, even if not in a chase. It may not be 100mph+ the whole time, but when there's open air, they'll get there.

This got me curious so I went out on the street and held a magnet to the front passenger door of the first 6 parked cars I came across. The magnet stuck to 4 of them. The ones it did not stick to are a Nissan Rogue and a Jeep Sahara 4xe.

> I genuinely wonder what the cause of this behavior is.

Seriously? It's from people not wanting to be arrested and go to jail. If they get away, perfect. If they don't, well, they were going to jail anyways. Now they have a cool story to tell while in jail. These are not people getting pulled over because they rolled a stop sign. These are people doing dirt, know it, and are willing to try something to avoid getting caught. It's really not complicated

John Oliver recently did a segment on police chases

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVFXUkFx5Y8

Decided to scratch up some peoples' clear coats for a little science experiment?

This YouTube video is missing a Kavinsky soundtrack.

If they're eluding cops at 100mph and being a danger to the public, it's because they're being chased by cops...

But well, it's America, having the risk of a stray cop bullet hitting you because just like car chases, shootous are inevitable, makes it safer!

I don't get this gotcha. The license plate scanner associates a plate with a location and time, it doesn't care for who drives it. In a chase, you know the plate, you don't know the location. Seems perfect?

There is this perception that if you drive fast and recklessly enough the police will quickly stop following you. It's a get-out-of-jail-free card in popular perception.

police will chase in the US for really any reason, kinda dumb when they have your plates they can just mail you a fine

john oliver did a whole thing on it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8ygQ2wEwJw

I think they're asking why there's such a large population of people willing to commit crimes and then get into high speed chases.

They already have darts for this that use adhesives to stick to any part of the vehicle and shoot out from the pursuing vehicles

just like so many things that work in every country but the US apparently

The actual darts for this don't look that far off tbh: https://www.toledoblade.com/local/police-fire/2016/04/06/GPS...

The cause of the behavior (as phrased when asked) is not wanting to go to jail. Asking why people are in situations where they are committing crimes that could land them in jail is a totally different question. Typically, poverty. Also common, addiction.

Could I have damaged the cars even though I saw no signs of damage?

It would be nice if someone else with knowledge would chime in here. If this damages cars, then I want to know, so I can stop doing it in the future.

Unless the cars are perfectly washed and clayed, even running a clean finger over a car is likely to introduce scratches. I just wouldn’t ever touch someone’s car.

You can look up people even trying to detail their cars to make them cleaner and end up leaving “love marks.” It doesn’t matter how soft the thing you’re using is. It’s because the car has contaminants on it and by rubbing anything on the car, those contaminants end up scratching everything. It’s like when you’re at the beach and you’re trying to remove sand off your skin. You’re probably not aggressively rubbing it off or using much pressure but it still hurts. It’s the same with cars, it’s just that the rocks aren’t as visible to you. They will leave swirls and scratches though… which become noticeable.

I’ve had people just lean against my car when it wasn’t completely clean and completely ruin the paint requiring an entire 5 stage detail.

In 2003, "Los Angeles Mayor Jim Hahn, along with Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, the California Highway Patrol, the Los Angeles Police Chiefs’ Association and the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners sent a letter Feb. 26 to news directors of television stations asking them to consider reducing the amount of police car chase coverage they broadcast."

  Officials asserted in their letter that live continuous coverage
  causes dangerous police chases to be looked upon as entertainment,
  and encourages suspects to flee in pursuit of instant fame.

  “Dangerous suspects are acquiring instant celebrity status when they
  recklessly evade police over our streets and highways. This form of
  notoriety is life threatening and should not occur,” said Los Angeles
  County Sheriff Lee Baca in the press release.

  "There have been instances where drivers look out windows and wave. Many
  [suspects] have made it abundantly clear that they’re enjoying the whole
  thing,” said Julie Wong, director of communications for the mayor’s
  office.

> I’ve had people just lean against my car when it wasn’t completely clean and completely ruin the paint requiring an entire 5 stage detail

Assuming this is true, it seems like something has gone badly wrong somewhere in this process.

Why can't cars have paint that survives being "leaned on"

Except that people around the world generally don't want to go to prison, so why do americans have more high speed chases?

(assuming they do in fact have more per capita/car...)

Now this assumes that the LAPD/LASD/whomever actually cares to catch the suspect! In my (limited) experience with them, you could incinerate a full bus and they'd not blink an eye, but if you block the intersection at one of the many rush hours, that's a capital offense!

Why are you countering his political talking points with your own?

As long as the car is dirty, then contact with it can damage the top coat. This is a lot more true if you need to drag or scrape the magnet to remove it.

> Outside certain high performance cars, most cars have steel body panels.

I never thought of my Olds Silhouette minivan as a high performance car. Neat.

The rubbery panels were great. I was at school pickup and another parent backed into it. They crushed the front fender to the firewall. Then they pulled up and it popped out.

They were freaked out but it was fine. And it's just a car.

> Possible but it seems like the chases are not even a US problem but more a "certain places" problem.

We see drivers here do 100 here sometimes. Then we seem them slow down when they have enough. We're not seeing choppers launched and 22 cops also driving aggressively when it happens (and ramping up the risk to everyone else).

I'm going to guess... because we can? Police here are willing to chase for almost anything in most jurisdictions. I bet there are restrictions on what constitutes a chasable offense in the rest of the world.