Police prepare stunning end for high-speed car chases

[Gary Howland <gary@systemics.com>]

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. 


Original article at http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/Times/timnwsnws01022.html?1060389

Three questions come to mind:

	Will old fashioned engines be outlawed?
	Will the "stun guns" be outlawed?
	Will susceptible electronic systems become mandatory?
	(and if so, why not just put a remote control switch in all cars?)


Gary