By Steven Symes 
We’ve seen the Grappler Bumper in action before, but a lot of people are witnessing its capabilities for the first time thanks to it abruptly ending a police chase in the state of Washington. As the Olympia Police Department pursued a drug dealer suspect in a Toyota Prius of all things, a Thurston County Sheriff’s deputy was able to use a Grappler Bumper to bring the little hybrid to a full, safe stop.
Arizona cops deploy the Grappler Bumper on the wrong car.
Police were alerted to the Prius thanks to its Flock camera system. Once officers located the suspect, he took off and headed down Interstate 5, leaving the city behind in a desperate attempt to get away.
Unfortunately for him, Thurston County Sheriff’s Office has equipped multiple vehicles with the Grappler Bumper, with several of them actively on patrol that night. When Olympia Police asked for assistance, the deputy who took the lead got his Grappler ready to make the snag.
You can see the grappling apparatus raise up at the front of the car, the dashcam capturing the netting in the poor lighting, before the deputy lowers it in preparation to wrap that web around the passenger-side rear tire.
He pulls that off successfully and the little Prius fights against the trap like a fish on the hook. However, he deputy is able to slow his vehicle down gradually, keeping the suspect from crashing out. We’ve seen wrecks happen after a successful Grappler deployment before, so what the cop does after catching the car matters.
While a Toyota Prius might seem like an odd vehicle to use in a police chase, we’ve seen it done a few times now. In the hands of a capable driver, they seem to do quite well running from cops, so the deputy displayed some serious skill with his Grappler Bumper and should be commended.
Image via PoliceActivity/YouTube