I can't remember what started the discussion with a friend, but I really found the idea entertaining......
 Is there a way to install a directed EMP {electronic magnetic pulse} in a Police unit to stop a chase?
Or has the idea been looked at?

Though I saw some remote device do that one time, but I don't remember if it was a prototype thing on the Discovery channel or a movie.

Damn, I may have just gave away a Million dollar idea...lol    

Years ago I saw a prototype device that could be mounted beneath a police car and used to disable vehicles that were being chased. This device had 4 skateboard wheels and was about the size of a pizza box. A police officer would position his car directly centered behind the vehicle he was chasing and could then deploy this thing, which would drop to the ground and shoot ahead of the cruiser like a missile; it actually used model rocket motors. The device had 3 prongs coming out of the top, similar in appearance to curb feelers, and would apparently short the motor, causing the car to die.

Someone has been playing way too much need for speed.

EMP doesn't do shit to cars. Even new ones with electronic widgetry...





 

Really??  I find this hard to believe....EMP's wreck electronics, electronics run modern cars, I.E. ECM/ECU, so explain why exactly a true EMP would not ruin a vehicle?

Also to the OP.....this was from the first Fast and the Furious movie.....so no, you didn't give up a million dollar idea, it has been done before.....Hollywood beat ya to it.

Could you even 'direct' an EMP?

EMPs only wreck all electronics in bad techno-fiction, and video games...



Reality is different. If it doesn't have an antenna, and it's not plugged in to the power grid, it's probably safe...



A few years ago, Congress commissioned a study on the effects of EMP - modern cars were subjected to lab-generated EMP events, and NONE of them were 'wrecked'...



Most were completely uneffected, some stalled but started right back up just by turning the key.
 

With all our technology and without having the "big brother/police state" argument, surely there has to be a way to shut down a car in a chase.
The pit just seems too dangerous for other drivers. I got this idea from watching worlds wildest police chases the other night.

Ive seen this. I think it was in california. Somebody should find out more about this.

I also thought I saw a battery that would accept a remote signal and shut down. This was a few years ago and a quick google search didn't uncover anything.

SURE........................but the question is just how much else would it shut down?

No, seriously, think about this for a moment: cruise missiles against ships are great problem. Wouldn't it be swell if we had an electronic device on a nuclear carrier that could fry the missiles' circuits. I mean, we know where those missiles are enough to fire bullets at them, why can't we do that with something electronic? We would certainly have the power behind it, so why not?

No doubt someone is working on it......but we don't have it yet.

Ship wise, there would be a whole of things to be concerned with. Can the enemy use that beam fired to home in on the ship? Will that beam affect other allied ships in the area? What will it do to the electronics of my own aircraft? How much will the angle stops be on such a weapon?

Okay, now let's put that question to a police car. How big does the car need to be to carry such a device? Will the car need an additional engine* for such a weapon? In firing a pulse through the rest of the car to shut the engine, what will that do to the people, to the gas tank? Will it be a tight beam or will there be leakage on the side that can affect others? Will the beam stop at the engine or will it keep on going some distance? What will it do to the police car's electronics?

Ever see a seagull with one leg? Speculation is that he got that way from being burned too close by radars. Electromagnetic beams may be invisible.....but they are far from harmless.

*in a think tank for a conceptual helicopter that used a gaussian gun system, one possibility suggested for the power to fire such a gun was to add another engine, a generator, to the helicopter
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("Perfect! The Bat Ray has konked our ignition! Hold tight! Here....we.....GO!"––Riddler to Molly, (w,stte), Batman "Smack in the Middle")

There are plenty of high-tech, low-risk ways to stop a vehicle... Most of them involve missiles... Which obviously doesn't work for LE.