In 1997, a group of I.A.C.P. members, and law enforcement agencies started critiquing the incidents with spikes. The Spikes (Stixs) not connected to a cord was critiqued as an obvious risk. But could simply adding a cord improve safety?
The Cord-Reel Solution
The “new” manufactures added cords and a deployment sleeves to their systems with new marketing strategies.
They would have you believe their new modification had a superior safety advantage, however the serious incidents have never stopped. The problem was the tactics of spike use had changed, where cover and concealment was no longer used, and because of product failure, officers were still entering the roadway to recover spikes.
Law enforcement had started new trends where Spikes were deployed without cover, sometimes systems were deployed from behind the “cover” of a patrol car blocking a lane. This is one reason one reason we still have serious incidents with Spikes, but not the major reason.
Deployment when conducted outside of “protective cover” is what we call a high visibity deployment. This provokes a reaction by the target vehicle to evade the spikes. This action is dangerous to all on the roadway.
Unsecured System (Recovery)
Historiclly, many of the incidents were in the recovery of the Spikes, despite the new deployment sleeve, and the Cord Reel, the systems were upgraded, but of poor quality components. If any component fails, it creates a dangerous scenario, where the officer has to enter into traffic to retrieve the spikes. Spikes fail because they are poorly serviced, or fall apert when struck by the target vehicle. Deployment officers sometimes leave the cord in mid air during deployment or recovery, this snags the cord and seperates the system or drags the system down the road.
Officers entering into the roadway to recover spikes is responsible for deployment officers hit by pursuit officers. The situation can cause an adverse reaction by a pursuit officer where he trys to avoids Spikes and circumvents the deployment area in a risky fashion.
The reality is that the new components wear, every time you deploy them in training, poor service, and a design, with sharp corners, weak material, etc… All thes lead to failure and leaves spikes on the roadway. This dangerous scenario, never changed.
Spike-Devil. products offers features and benefits based on the original designs which gave rise to the popularity of the tire deflation devices. We do so with an emphasis on training and a new a special product that is engineered not to fail. Auto Spike is made from a tough nylon, designed to take many hits and be reloadable. This problem is not found on accordion type systems and only on multi-sided style systems.
Spike Devil’s Multi-sided system, uses a deployment sleeve from a nylon cloth material designed to take extreme impacts. Spike Belt includes a replacement sleeve with the purchace of the strip, so that the old sleeve is not used more than once. In addition old sleeves can be repurposed as trainer units, so you do not loose your investment.