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by foolfoolz 1220 days ago
this article is full of claims in need of data such as this one.

> These darts have been used successfully, nationwide, 10,000 times – meaning 10,000 wanted or accused criminals have been taken off the streets.

every single use of the dart was for a criminal? a 100% conviction rate?

also

> The most important thing about StarChase is every tag saves a life”

every police chase involves a death?

3 comments

Definitely marketing hyberbole but if they need to use the tag dart, presumably it is someone who is fleeing from the police, so they are _at least_ guilty of eluding, with probably a very high conviction rate for at least that offense, if they go to trial.
All they had to do is say "could save a life" and it would have been a lot more effective because it would be hard to criticize
Never run from the police, because they never kill people who are cooperating?
Ok... What are the cases where running from the police is the preferable strategy?
You're driving home with your girlfriend and daughter and a police officer pulls you over. You are licensed to carry a gun, and you have your gun in your car. If you drive off you're evading police, and guilty of a crime, and if you don't you get this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Philando_Castile.

I am not saying "you should always run from the cops". What I'm saying is that "there's nothing to fear from cooperating with the police after not committing a crime" is also not true.

The police are responsible for creating an environment in which a sizable portion of the population have a very real fear that any interaction may result in harm or death whether or not you did anything wrong, and so the decision to run may seem "wrong" but it is not unreasonable.

When you get away.
It's against policy for police officers to chase 2 and 3 wheel vehicles because of the high risk of fatality.
This reads like a sponsored story to advertise the tracking dart product. I looked through the page a couple times for a disclosure but didn't see one.
> every single use of the dart was for a criminal? a 100% conviction rate?

Maybe uses where that wasn't the case just don't count as "successful".