Chalottesville PD tests

[gcgrotz]

Friday night on tg CPINV, there was some testing going on of something that can track and shut down a vehicle (Lo-jack or On-star maybe?). They were driving around and giving locations and one was telling another things to do on the computer. The PC locked up one time when they gave the kill command and had to be re-booted. They then said stuff about subject has stopped---subject bailed out and is running. All in a casual testing tone of voice.

Any thoughts? You don't hear much about Lo-jack anymore, are they still around? Didn't they operate around 170 MHz? I used to work with a guy who went with them when they were gearing up.

 

[ACU1000]

Lo-Jack is on 173.075 and I never hear anything on it.

 

[tuttleje]

It's sounds like a bait car operation. The car is wired for video and audio....and is computer controlled to lock all the doors and kill the ignition upon command. It also has a GPS tracking device. It is placed in a high crime area...and when someone steals it, the police track them with GPS. When they are spotted, the police activate the kill and lock switches on their computer to send a signal to the car. The suspects are trapped (door locked and ignition off) in the car and arrested.....most of the time.

 

[tuttleje]

Here is a link for information on the "bait car" program.

http://www.baitcar.com/

Check out the videos. Bad language...but very good results for the police. Your gonna love it!

 

[W4UVV]

It works good

It's sounds like a bait car operation. The car is wired for video and audio....and is computer controlled to lock all the doors and kill the ignition upon command. It also has a GPS tracking device. It is placed in a high crime area...and when someone steals it, the police track them with GPS. When they are spotted, the police activate the kill and lock switches on their computer to send a signal to the car. The suspects are trapped (door locked and ignition off) in the car and arrested.....most of the time.

Court TV now has a series called "Bait Car" and it is great. I forget the city's name in California but it is the stolen car capital of the state where more cars are stolen, striped for parts and sold. The city has 5 or 6 bait cars. Three are named "Goldie", "Ruby" and "Silver" for the color of the cars. A chase car is given directions via radio from HQ of the location via GPS of the suspects and he tries to find and follow the bait car. He alone does not attempt a stop. He waits until one or more marked units arrive and surprise and scare the you know what out of these jerks. Sometimes things don't work right and the stolen car gets on the interstate before it can be stopped in the city and that usually involves the CHP and makes capturing whomever more difficult because of comm/time/coordination issues. I am not sure but I guess the computer control command signals are sent via multi cell towers. One episode I saw had been stolen at the same time during the same general time frame.

Another episode showed a cop in a bait car being "chased" by a marked unit during daytime. The driver was stopped and "apprehended" and placed in the police car. Suddenly the marked unit had to leave on an emergency call with lights and siren going leaving the bait car parked in a prominent location known to attract thieves. It did. Within 30 minutes a guy stole it and he was nailed about 2 miles away. TV worth watching.