Abstract:
An automotive vehicle mounted device usable by pursuing law enforcement personnel to mark the location of evidence/contraband thrown or dropped from a fleeing vehicle through the actuation of a compressed gas cartridge to force a paintball cartridge out through a discharge barrel to the ground at the point of discard.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]     NONE.  
       STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT  
       [0002]     Research and development of this invention and Application have not been federally sponsored, and no rights are given under any Federal program.  
       REFERENCE TO A MICROFICHE APPENDIX  
       [0003]     NOT APPLICABLE  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0004]     1. Field of the Invention  
         [0005]     This invention relates to the field of police law enforcement, in general, and to police vehicle chasing of fleeing suspects, in particular.  
         [0006]     2. Description of the Related Art  
         [0007]     As will be understood, police vehicle chases oftentimes end with the occupants of the fleeing vehicle being charged with weapons and/or drug possessions, or with the possession of stolen property. As will also be appreciated, the occupants of these fleeing vehicles frequently attempt to rid themselves of such items by throwing them out from the vehicle as the chase continues. The standard operating procedure in such instances is for the pursuing police officer to radio either an assisting officer or the police dispatcher describing the approximate location of the discard, usually by referencing the site to a visual marker.  
         [0008]     As will be appreciated, however, where the chase is on a rural country road, there often does not exist any viable marker to use as a reference point to begin the locating search. On a city street, on the other hand, house numbers and retail store numbers may not be easily visible—or, for that matter, to be easily identifiable by the following police officer chasing at a high rate of vehicular speed. Shouting over the police radio that something was thrown from the fleeing vehicle alongside a big tree on the right side of a country road may just not be enough; or that something was thrown out near a brown house without a mailbox might not be enough, either.  
         [0009]     And, as will be appreciated, the problem becomes even greater where the police vehicle chase is at night where appropriate markers are even less discernible.  
       OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION  
       [0010]     It is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved manner of identifying an area where the fleeing occupants discard whatever they throw from the fleeing vehicle in attempting to elude a chasing police officer.  
         [0011]     It is an object of the present invention, also, to provide such a method which can be utilized in both daytime and nighttime chases.  
         [0012]     It is another object of the invention to provide such a locating method which can be operated without any necessity for the following officer to take his/her hands from the steering wheel in conveying the marker location during the process of the pursuit.  
         [0013]     It is a further object of the invention to provide such a method which allows for multiple markings as the occupant or occupants of the fleeing vehicle throw different items from the fleeing vehicle at successive intervals as the chase continues.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0014]     As will become clear hereinafter, the present invention essentially comprises an automotive vehicle mounted device usable by pursuing law enforcement personnel to mark the location of evidence/contraband thrown or dropped from a fleeing vehicle through the actuation of a compressed gas cartridge to force a paintball cartridge out through a discharge barrel to the ground at the point of discard. In one embodiment, the device is mounted in the trunk of an automobile—with the actuation being accomplished through its operator actuating a normally-open floor strike switch in its cab. In a second embodiment, the device is mounted in a saddlebag of a motorcycle, with its operator actuating the compressed gas cartridge by way of a normally-open hand trigger switch on its handlebar(s).  
         [0015]     With each embodiment, the device preferably includes a feeder holding a plurality of, for example, .68 caliber paintball cartridges and a discharge barrel of a length—for example, at least 5 inches—so that the paintball cartridge is able to clear the automotive vehicle to the ground. A 12-gram CO 2  cartridge is employed to force the paintball cartridge out through the discharge barrel, and a tri-phase light-emitting-diode (LED) color indicator is included to convey the power operating level of the gas cartridge. Referred to as an “Interceptor Street Marker (ISM)”, the vehicle-mounted device and apparatus of the invention thus operates to fire a .68 caliber paintball into the ground as an indicator to mark the presumed location of the discarded evidence/contraband from a fleeing suspect. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0016]     These and other features of the present invention will be more clearly understood from a consideration of the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:  
         [0017]      FIGS. 1-4  respectively illustrate side, front, back and top views of the automotive vehicle-mounted apparatus as it might be mounted within the trunk of an automobile or in the saddlebag of a motorcycle according to the invention; and  
         [0018]      FIG. 5  is a block diagram helpful in an understanding of the operation of the invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0019]     In  FIGS. 1-4 , a mounting plate for the ISM device is shown at  10  with the securement in the trunk of an automobile or in the saddlebag of a motorcycle being by way of the mounting holes  12 . The feeder tube holding a plurality of dye containing cartridges  14  is shown at  16 —preferably of a 6 inch length so as to hold at least six .68 caliber paintball cartridges. A compressed gas cartridge (e.g. a 12-gram CO 2  cartridge) is illustrated at  18 . The discharge barrel for the forced out paintball cartridge is shown at  20 , of a length at least 5 inches so as to clear the vehicle. A tri-phase LED color indicator is shown at  22  of typical type to illuminate “green” when the CO 2  cartridge  18  is at full strength, “yellow” when the cartridge is at half strength, and “red” when the cartridge is of insufficient strength to be effective. Reference numeral  24  in  FIG. 1  is a standard type RJ connector for receiving ground and +12 volt DC connections, as well as a trigger for actuating the CO 2  cartridge to force the paintball cartridge out through the discharge barrel  20 .  
         [0020]     In the block diagram of  FIG. 5 , a power converter circuit  50  is shown having an input at ground  51  and from the vehicle&#39;s battery at  52 —typically +12 volt DC. The outputs of the power converter circuit  50  are at ground  53 , filtered +12 volt DC and −12 volt DC at  54 ,  55 , and +5 volt DC and −5 volt DC at  56 ,  57 . The tri-phase LED is shown at  58 —and, as previously mentioned, indicates the active power level and the status of the CO 2  cartridge (glowing green when the CO 2  cartridge is at full power, yellow when the cartridge is at half power, and red when the cartridge is at low power, for example less than 20%).  
         [0021]     An LED latch circuit  60  is the control for the tri-phase LED  58 , providing a voltage level to set and maintain the LED indicator status. As shown, the LED latch circuit  60  receives an input from an LED indicator control circuit  62  and essentially provides the needed output for the tri-phase LED  58 .  
         [0022]     As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the LED indicator control circuit  62  provides the maintenance control for the tri-phase LED  58 . It receives an input from a pressure sensor circuit  64  which serves to monitor air flow from the CO 2  chamber shown at  66 . As will be understood, voltages provided at the outputs  54 - 57  of the power converter circuit  50  serve to energize the components  58 ,  60 ,  62  and  64 , as well as the triggering components to be described below. As  FIG. 5  indicates, the pressure sensor circuit  64  monitors the pressure of the CO 2  chamber, and provides the output control to the LED indicator control circuit  62 .  
         [0023]     The Interceptor Street Marker of the invention is controlled via a manual trigger, shown at  70 . With the apparatus of the invention mounted within the trunk of an automobile or within the saddlebag of a motorcycle (as shown at  100 ), the trigger  70  is normally open. With the apparatus incorporated within the trunk of the automobile, the trigger may comprise a floor strike switch at a location accessible to an operator during vehicular movement, as in a cab portion of the automobile. When the apparatus is mounted in the saddlebag of a motorcycle, on the other hand, the trigger  70  can be located in either or both handlebars, accessible to the operator and similarly in the nature of a normally open switch, operable by means of “hand-power”, instead of “foot-power” as with the trigger of the automobile usage. Actuating the trigger  70  in either event energizes a trigger circuit  72  in controlling various transducer/solenoid components in the CO 2  chamber  66  to fire the compressed gas cartridge so as to force the paintball cartridge out through the barrel  20  of  FIGS. 1-4 . Such airflow is indicated at  90  in  FIG. 5 , with reference numeral  92  representing the monitored pressure in the cartridge to determine its operating level and the time at which the cartridge should be replaced (preferably at half power).  
         [0024]     In a preferred arrangement for the invention, the feeder  16  is selected of a length to hold anywhere between 5 and 10 paintball dye packs  14 . With a CO 2  cartridge of the type obtainable wherever air compressed guns are sold, testing has indicated that a single 12-gram CO 2  cartridge will be able to force out upwards of ten of these dye packs. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, a feed tube is selected to hold 6 fluorescent paintball dye packs to ensure that a series of locations can be marked by police law enforcement personnel when pursuing a fleeing suspect. In such manner, the 12-gram CO 2  cartridge employed retains sufficient pressure to force out the 6 paintball cartridge dye packs before the CO 2  pressure drops to a level at which replacement should be had.  
         [0025]     While there have been described what are considered to be preferred embodiments of the present invention, it will be readily appreciated by those skilled in the art that modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the teachings herein. For at least such reason, therefore, resort should be had to the claims appended hereto for a true understanding of the scope of the invention.