Is this the future of policing?
California Highway Patrol is taking a victory lap after OnStar remotely disabled a C7 Corvette which was stolen and being used to flee from authorities. The suspect led multiple CHP units on a chase through the San Fernando Valley on July 30 starting at about 1:15 pm. However, remotely shutting down the American sports car meant the whole incident came to a peaceful conclusion in Van Nuys.
To see how this chase could've gone down, check out another one with a C7 Corvette here.
Instead of the owner of the C7 Corvette having to call OnStar or the authorities having to do it, the security system in the sports car automatically recognized it had been boosted and contacted the OnStar call center, which called CHP. Of course, officers told them to shut it down, and about 3 minutes later the Chevy crawled to a stop.
Hilariously, the local news report made OnStar’s ability to shut down a vehicle remotely sound like some barely-released, new-fangled technology. Just wait until they learn about key fob spoofing and vehicle lane assist systems.
As the local news pointed out, the risk of police chasing a high-performance car being driven by a motivated suspect is that a high-speed, lengthy chase can ensue. That chase might span multiple counties and put all kinds of innocent civilians at risk.
The local news report included that the driver is accused of “having an AK-47 with them.” We’re really not sure what to make of that tidbit of information, but it sounds like the suspect didn’t try to use the firearm. He apparently had others, including a 1911, but the media really focused in on the scary weapon used by socialist revolutionaries to topple free governments around the globe. Also, we know from personal experience many guns are mistakenly called AK-47s by other journalists who don’t know the difference between a communist and capitalist weapon, but apparently this info is from CHP so maybe it’s accurate?
Source: Fox 11 Los Angeles
