A Better Way to Blow Out the Bad Guys’ Tires

We’ve all seen footage of police departments deploying “spike strips” to take out the tires of fleeing criminals. However, traditional strips have a few drawbacks: An officer has to manually throw them in front of the car, which not only puts the officer in danger, it also allows the driver to potentially avoid the strips. And any pursuing police vehicle also has to drive around the strips, or else someone has to quickly (and manually) retract them.

Pacific Scientific Energetic Materials Co. (PSEMC) and Stop Stick/Stop Tech have come up with a remote-control alternative called the Nighthawk. A small suitcase is placed next to the road, and an officer can remotely trigger the device from a safe distance away, firing the Teflon-quoted spikes across the road and then automatically retracting them. The spikes also cause a controlled tire deflation, avoiding dangerous blow outs.

The spikes are launched using the same type of gas generator cartridge found in an airbag system.

The Nighthawk is actually based on another solution called the Safe, Quick, Undercarriage Immobilization Device (SQUID) from PSEMC, which launched both spikes and a heavy metal webbing under a vehicle. This caused the tires to deflate, while the webbing wrapped around the vehicle axle. Unfortunately, SQUID proved too heavy for field use.

SQUID not only spawned the Nighthawk, but also the Pit-Ballistic Undercarriage Lanyard (Pit-BUL), which uses the original netting technology. Pit-BUL is placed at a checkpoint, and resembles a speed bump. If a vehicle attempts to speed through the checkpoint, the device launches a spiked netting into the tires.

Source: PSEMC