Thanks for recovering my stolen car…
Well obviously the owner can recover its full value from the thief and there is no way that the thief would be judgment proof and that the whole thing will drag on for years.
Also, in the US, it is incredibly unlikely someone needs their car to go to work anyway, and they have great workers’ rights and the owner can’t be just fired on the spot “for cause” for this.
/s
I’d feel a lot better knowing the thief got caught though, rather than finding it burnt out on the side of the road.
The police burned down my house and shot all my pets but I’m just glad they arrested the thief even if he was let back out before I was even able to wipe up the blood.
Great news! We’ve recovered your stolen vehicle.
It brought the chase to an end with no injuries, that’s definitely a win.
It is well known that police chases far too often unnecessarily escalate situations, causing them to be more dangerous in the first place.
How many police chases are for non-violent offenses?
Simply not worth it from these largely untrained, out of control, trigger-happy, power-fetishists.
Also a lot of police maneuvers go bad. Just because this one turned out okay doesn’t make this okay everywhere. They are lucky it didn’t snap or cause the car to careen off some other direction.
Give it 5 years and cops will just phone in your license plate number and the manufacturer will turn your car off. Or, more realistically, lock the doors and self-drive you to the nearest police station.
Joke’s on them; I drive a 20-year-old car (350Z Roadster Touring 6MT in Daytona Blue)
Well… might be that the joke is on you, as the thieves would target your car in that hypothetical.
Yeah but I live in the US. A manual transmission alone is top tier anti-theft.
Might be substantially safer. A forced deceleration is extremely dangerous and potentially deadly to all parties and bystanders.
Amazing piece of kit those, and a lot safer than a Pit maneuver or spike strips.
I’m sure they’ll figure out how to use it to kill a disproportionate amount of brown people. Just give them time.
And dogs
In before it gets used to drag people.
You know what is even safer?
Not engaging in a high speed chase.
when possible yeah, getting the license plate is a good idea.
but there are times where it’s better to engage in a chase, and this is better than a pitdeleted by creator
They stole a car. I’d rather see him arrested.
Cameras are everywhere and most modern vehicles track and upload their position at all times. They could also simply follow behind in an unmarked car with lights off until the driver stops and arrest them there.
Chases are usually unnecessary because we exist in a surveillance state.
All of my family’s vehicles are 10+ years old, if not 20+.
Famously, car thieves were never caught before mass surveillance was rolled out.
They very rarely were though, people used to steal cars for shits and giggles in the UK.
That’s not a modern vehicle being chased though.
Besides, the US isn’t a surveillance state, it’s just too spread out for that.
So, once upon a time, I got a peek behind the scenes of the automatic readers for license plates. Unless you’re living in a very rural area, and I’m talking all you see around you is crop fields or trailer parks and dollar generals, you’ve probably passed a few of them. That was about 6 years ago, so I would bet there are even more of them out on the roadways now.
You could probably get to bubba’s house and hide, but they’ll know the general area you’re in, down to a twenty mile radius or so .
We’ve built a surveillance state. Presumably that technology can be used to figure out who did this and catch them, without the danger. If not, why the fuck does it exist at all?
Also, now the car is totalled so I don’t know what good that does for the person who owned it…
A recovered theft vehicle gets basically the same branded title as a totally wrecked vehicle in the States.
Even if this ended differently, the car would be impounded for at least a few days while the police search for drugs, weapons, other stolen items and conduct their investigation as to where/how it was stolen, where the thief drove it, what they did at those locations, etc. So the owner is still without a vehicle for a week, and when they do get it back it’s worth significantly less with the newly branded title.
That’s not a car anymore
not saying that they shouldn’t get arrested. but they can be safely followed until they run out of gas, no need to make Hollywood scenes on public roads which will make cops feel manly at the risk of passerby safety
You can do a lot of dumb shit on a tank of gas, and put a lot of lives at risk.
There’s not really any such thing as “safely following” someone running from the police.
The high speed chase only starts when the lights come on. An unmarked car could easily follow at normal speeds.
Do you know how easy an unmarked police car is to spot though?
Also, you only find out if the vehicle is going to run once you put the lights on. What’s the plan, just follow everyone home you want to give a ticket to?
Depends on the charge obviously. For a stolen vehicle, as is the case in the OP, why not? It’s not like cops are productive with their time anyways. They sit on the side of the road doing nothing for hours at a time.
If the vehicle is not suspected to be stolen and a stop is attempted but the suspect flees, they can easily arrest them later at their house or workplace. The license plate gives possible suspects, then phone location data is subpoenaed to prove who was driving at the time.
No need to chase.
You know an even safer one?
Track them via existing cameras and from the air. Then you dont need to chase them.
Yeah, the existing cameras on US back roads, and a helicopter that costs a few grand an hour to run.
Great idea.
Drones are pretty cheap these days cost way less to run
deleted by creator
Also a nightmare to fly in the vicinity of other air traffic, so no use in a big city.
You know what’s also a nightmare in a big city? A fucking high speed chase. Small problems (that don’t apply in this situation anyway) do not negate potential solutions. No solution is perfect. Obviously it doesn’t work in a fucking city. No one claimed it would. Stop making up issues that aren’t being discussed.
Good thing the used their doodad to bring this to a stop quickly then, before it could develop into something dangerous.
They developed it into something dangerous. The driver was probably driving reasonably safely (there is no perfectly safe way to drive) before the cops showed up.
if there’s a helicopter following someone they’re still gonna run. I don’t see how your idea is any better than what already happens.
I’ve seen cases where someone has given up once the whirlybird comes out, but those are rare.
But apparently bringing the chase to a stop quickly and cleanly is worse than a long, drawn out pursuit involving helicopters and multiple vehicles. Because police bad.
Once you have the licence plate and/or a shot of the perps, the high speed chase is just a bystander risk.
The RCMP stopped doing them decades ago and hasn’t had any issues.
Instead of launching a tether they could just stick a tracker to the car and follow them at a leisurely pace.
Not if they ditch the car. As they would. The license plate is already going to be too hot to drive around.
You know whats safest what normal civilized countries do? They dont high speed chase other cars endagering everyone around but just note down the licsense plates. You have the name of the person and at some point they gonna turn home.
The car in the video is stolen. Whose home do you think the police are going to end up at if they just follow the license plate registration?
Really? Which country is this?
And what’s the plan if they don’t own the car they’re driving?
Assuming Livonia is Livonia, Michigan, the USA.
pretty sure that’s a front wheel drive, wanted to see them trying to continue dragging the chasis

Bad car!
Seriously, though, this and the jute runner in the hallway. Mm-mmm.
Here, you can see an example of the phenomenon that inspired Tron’s famous light bikes.
Finland was streets ahead back in 1996
Oh, you had kids in the back seat. Sorry, that’s on you.
You’re not making streets ahead a thing
Coined and minted! Been there, coined that! “Streets ahead” is verbal… wildfire!
Well if you’re not streets ahead, you’re streets behind.
It happened decades ago
Damn I’m probably flying to Oulo next summer, remind me to get full coverage insurance on my rental
I think it’s cheaper to not flee from the cops
But where’s the fun in that? /s
I guess you’re right, I for one don’t want to get surprise sodomised by a Finnish police cruiser.
Vlad the Impaler made this
Dumbass should have just used a knife to cut the rope. Now their car is totaled and they have a felony charge.
Edit: *sigh* /s
I can’t tell if this is ragebait or you just really don’t understand how high speed chases work
Ragebait is not the term used for something that makes you feel angry because you are not sure if the person is being serious or not.
“ragebait or”
Either it’s ragebait or something else.
Or, you know, pulling a knife while fleeing from the police.
I think they’re genuine though.
No I’m not being genuine! Who just carries a knife large enough to cut through a Kevlar rope on them?
G’day mate!
In all my years of Lemmy, Reddit, various forums, AIM, IRC, etc., I don’t think I’ve felt a typed sigh more than that one.
For real that person should have got out and cut that strap with their oversized ribbon cutting ceremony scissors. Completely serious, not sarcastic.

Are you seriously suggesting getting out of your car with a knife in your hand in this situation?
What the fuck is wrong with the users of this platform?
FWIW, I don’t use /s because I feel like it defeats the point of using sarcasm.
There are people genuinely that stupid on this platform though.
Like you with your response?
That’s kind of on the ‘people genuinely that stupid’, isn’t it?
I also feel that if we don’t understand an obviously asinine statement in a way that allows us to laugh with the commenter, we can just roll our eyes and move on, rather than try to police their speech.
The tendency of commenters to insult the intellect of others because they miss a joke is so gross and smug and speaks of poor socialization.What if, instead, you had responded with:
“Careful, though! The police are way too eager to help. The last time I jumped out of my car with a knife to cut away one of these straps, they started shooting, but their aim is terrible. They didn’t hit the strap at all! Ow.”
It conveys the same point (don’t come at cops with a knife) and says two different things. If the person you’re talking to is actually stupid, they’ll maybe question the logic of coming at the cops with a knife, and if the person reading is in on the joke, they’ll give it a sensible chuckle and move on with their lives, without the nasty aftertaste of someone attempting to show how smart they are.
Never trust a fart
Now you tell me…
The device being able to lose tension is very scary. You need all drivers to be in control at all times without sudden jerk.
There’s a reason you use chains over straps to pull stuck vehicles out whenever you can. The tension can build and launch hooks or even the hitch back at the other vehicle. It’s not even that rare of an occurrence.
Use chains when possible and wrap it around the frame, not hitch when possible.
The cops pulled you off? Oh my god
This kills the vehicle
I think you’ll find that it was the driver that pulled it off, not the cop, the cop was just chilling.
How was it attached?
The police car has a long pier-thing just out of shot below the hood. The rope would sit on that until triggered to tangle on the axle.
As for how it’s triggered, dunno.
Witness me!












