IP: Police prepare stunning end for high-speed car chases

[Dave Farber <farber@central.cis.upenn.edu>]

London Times sendWOP djf


      August 10 1996
                                                      BRITAIN




        Police prepare stunning end for high-speed
                           car chases 


                          BY GILES WHITTELL 
                          AND NIGEL HAWKES 


       IT COULD be the end of the car chase as we know it. With the
       automotive equivalent of a stun gun, science fiction is coming to the
aid of
       law enforcement. 


       A high-powered electrical device under development at the Pentagon's
       Army Research Laboratory in Adelphi, Maryland, is to be tested by
       police and border patrol agents and could be in use by next year. 


       The car stopper works by focusing an intense electromagnetic charge on
       the electronic systems that manage most modern engines, disabling them
       and paralysing the car. In the jargon of its inventors, the 150 kilovolt
       charge is a nemp, or non-nuclear electromagnetic pulse. Contractors are
       bidding to produce a police version. 


       Very precisely directed beams are required, but even then there will be
       problems. A pulse powerful enough to disable an engine at any reasonable
       range would also be likely to disrupt communications, damage television
       and radio sets, disable computers and even stop heart pacemakers. There
       is also the danger of loss of control when a car is being driven at high
       speed. 


       Counter-measures would include using old-fashioned engines with no
       electronics, or perhaps surrounding the most delicate components with
       shielding. The best might be to get hold of one of the stun guns and
use it
       to disable pursuing police vehicles.