VIENNA — A vehicle pursuit that began in Cole County and ended in Maries County last fall became a turning point for Sheriff Mark Morgan, prompting his office to add two vehicle grapplers to its arsenal to assist in stopping fleeing suspects.

Last fall, the suspect traveled north along Highway 63, crossing county lines before they were apprehended, a situation Morgan said highlighted the limits of traditional pursuit tactics and the risks that come with them. The Maries County Sheriff said incidents such as this pushed his office to look for another option deputies could use when attempting to safely stop fleeing vehicles.

“That’s what really made me start looking for these,” Morgan said. “I was just looking for another tool to have to give deputies another way to safely stop a pursuit.”

That search led the Morgan to vehicle grapplers, a system designed to attach to a fleeing vehicle’s tire and gradually bring it to a stop. The department has two grapplers, which arrived “about a month ago,” Morgan said. One is currently installed, with the second being placed on another pursuit vehicle soon.

“We’ve got one installed right now,” Morgan said. “We’ll have a total of two.”

Grapplers are not meant to replace other methods such as PIT maneuvers or spike strips, but to add another option when deputies are managing a pursuit in real time. According to Morgan, the device must be deployed when a vehicle is traveling at least five miles per hour and typically should not be used above 70 miles per hour due to increased crash risk.

“Anytime you’re dealing with pursuits, there’s always a level of risk,” Morgan said. “Whether you’re spiking them, or whether you’re pitting them, or whether you’re going to use the grappler, there’s always going to be a certain level of risk. And that’s something that we’re always having to kind of manage on the go.”

Morgan said he can think of at least three or four incidents in the past year where a grappler could have made a difference, including cases that were not initiated by his agency but entered Maries County from elsewhere.

The grappler system is also used in some areas to prevent pursuits from starting at all. Morgan pointed to departments farther west, including Phoenix, Ariz., where officers may deploy the device on a known stolen vehicle before a chase begins.

“They’re really prevalent out in farther west,” Morgan said. “There, they’ll actually grapple the vehicle and go ahead and hook up to the vehicle. That way a pursuit doesn’t even have a chance to get started.”

Training was another consideration. Morgan said he traveled to Phoenix, Ariz., to complete instructor certification. This in turn now allows all future training to be conducted in-house rather than sending additional deputies out of state.

“I went to Phoenix to go do the instructor course,” Morgan said. “I’m a certified instructor. Now I can train the deputies on them (grapplers) without having to send them anywhere else.”

The total cost for the two grapplers was a little over $10,000 with each bumper-mounted unit costing about $5,500 a piece. The purchase was funded through the County Law Enforcement Restitution Fund, which is overseen by a board that votes on how the money is spent, according to Morgan.

While grapplers introduce another option for deputies, Morgan said they are not a guarantee of safety or a solution for every situation. Instead, they represent one more decision point in a process that is constantly evolving and heavily dependent on judgment.