Delta police announced last weekend it's introducing technology that will help officers pursue a fleeing vehicle without a high-speed chase.
With the help of the Delta Police Foundation, the department has purchased StarChase Pursuit Management Technology. Once installed, the system allows officers to tag a fleeing vehicle with a GPS tracking dart. Police can then track the vehicle from a safe distance and apprehend the driver and occupants once the car has come to a stop.
Delta will be the first department in Canada with the technology when it's installed in the first vehicle at the end of the month. Chief Neil Dubord said the department plans to have StarChase installed in eight of its vehicles by summer.
Dubord said the department began to see a trend of drivers fleeing from police last year.
"We were seeing vehicles that were beginning not to stop for police," he said, adding both Delta and Surrey saw the number of fleeing vehicles double in the first half of 2015, around the same time there was a spike in the number of shootings along the Surrey/North Delta border.
In the first six months of the year, Delta saw 70 vehicles flee from officers while Surrey RCMP saw 200.
The Delta Police Department has a strict policy on police pursuits and officers only give chase in cases where there is a significant and immediate threat to the public.
"We just recognize that police pursuits are not a good option," Dubord said.
In the face of an increasing number of drivers fleeing from officers, the department began looking for options and found StarChase, invented by an American company.
Dubord said getting the technology became a reality when the Delta Police Foundation came on board with a commitment to provide the needed funding.
