Warrant Required For GPS Tracking
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- Category: Law Enforcement
- Published on Thursday, 16 February 2012 03:20
- Written by Ryan Horban
- Hits: 69
Supreme Court GPS Decision Makes Little Impact
When police suspected a local man of being a drug trafficker the law enforcement authorities decided to place a GPS tracker on his vehicle to find out what exactly he was doing and where he was going. The GPS tracker became instrumental in helping the police gather evidence that showed the man was indeed trafficking large amounts of illegal drugs.
After local courts handed down a verdict of life in prison to the drug trafficker it was made public that police did not first obtain a warrant before placing the GPS tracker on his vehicle. The same GPS tracker that was so vital in exposing the illegal activity. In a last ditch effort to avoid spending the remainder of his life in jail, the man appealed the case all the way to the United States Supreme Court.
The case became widely publicized due to the increased prevalence of GPS tracking technology, including in popular smart phones such as the iPhone that would store personal locational data. Although the case reached the very highest courts, the decision was still a very closely decided 5-4 vote stating that law enforcement agencies must be first required to obtain a warrant from a judge before they can place a GPS vehicle tracker on a automobile for surveillance purposes.
State GPS Tracking Law Over-Ruled
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- Category: Law Enforcement
- Published on Tuesday, 14 February 2012 19:31
- Written by Ryan Horban
- Hits: 38
Police Support From State Over-Ruled
The people of Wisconsin are vastly different than those inhabiting New York. Although generalization does not accurately describe every individual in a particular region, for the most part Wisconsin people are small town values people and New York people are fast-paced hustle and bustle. The differences between the two regions of people are as different as their beloved sporting teams, the Green Bay Packers and the New York Yankees. These differences were once again illuminated when Wisconsin high courts made a ruling on the application of police using GPS trackers to monitor potential criminal suspects, a decision that was a complete 180 from a New York state ruling.
GPS Tracking & Wisconsin Police
GPS tracking devices are tools that Wisconsin Police have utilized at the state, county and local level for a long time. Although Wisconsin is not a state most people would associate with high crime, a criminal element still exists in the cheese state. Looking to improve the safety of Wisconsin residents, police have been routinely known to attach GPS trackers upon the automobiles of people suspected in engaging in criminal activity.
Wisconsin GPS Tracking Ruling
After a case regarding the police use of a GPS vehicle tracker without warrant reached the state’s Supreme Court, the Wisconsin judges had to make a ruling on what would be deemed acceptable and appropriate use of GPS devices among law enforcement agencies. After carefully reviewing the evidence that police gathered to build a case against the man appealing his sentence, the Wisconsin court made a statement that Wisconsin Police would not be required to first obtain a warrant before placing a GPS tracker on a suspect’s vehicle.
GPS Trackers In Manchester, NH
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- Category: Law Enforcement
- Published on Monday, 06 February 2012 20:33
- Written by Ryan Horban
- Hits: 27
Largest City In New Hampshire Could Boost Security
GPS Tracking Solution
Manchester is a city located in New Hampshire that has long and rich roots dating back to the colonial times. Originally the home to Native Americans, Manchester provided many natural resources and some of the best fishing in the region, making it very advantageous to settlers. Once settlers begun to take over the Manchester area the region grew into an economic powerhouse, becoming the home to the largest cotton mill in the world at the time. Although the “Queen City” is no longer the cotton producer it once was in the 1800s, Manchester still has a strong central economy. Unfortunatley, where the money goes, problems follow, and with Manchester being the largest city in New Hampshire, security is a strong concern for local law enforcing agencies. However, Manchester Police could get a boost in security through the use of GPS trackers.
Manchester: The Place To Be!
New Hampshire may be one of the smaller states in the union, but the state’s largest city was named “Number One Small City of the East” by the editors of Money magazine. This may have something to do with low crime rate, easy style of living and solid education system. However, low crime and high quality of life are not things that just happen to a city. Manchester Police spend day and night making certain that the streets are safe for Manchester residents, and that the bad guys are behind bars. One of the ways that police in Manchester could improve town security is through the use of GPS tracking devices to monitor criminal activity.
New York GPS Tracking Laws
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- Category: Law Enforcement
- Published on Wednesday, 25 January 2012 18:52
- Written by Ryan Horban
- Hits: 47
New York Court Rules On GPS Trackers
Privacy advocates and law enforcement agencies have long been butted heads over the application of monitoring individuals via GPS trackers. Law enforcement agencies have strongly been in favor of the practice of covertly equipping potential criminal’s automobiles with GPS tracking units as a cost-effective way to gather evidence, and at the same time keep officers out of the line of danger. On the other side of the argument, privacy advocates suggest that the practice of attaching GPS vehicle trackers onto private citizen’s automobiles infringes on the individual’s personal rights and freedoms. After reviewing evidence from an FBI investigation where the government agency used a GPS tracker to gather evidence on a drug trafficker, the highest court in the state of New York came out with a groundbreaking decision that would change the way law enforcement use GPS tracking devices.
GPS Tracker Decision
Although the decision by the New York Court may not have gathered as much attention as “The Decision” LeBron James made when he decided to take his talents to South Beach, the court ruling will have a lasting impact on the way police go about gathering evidence on criminal activity. After carefully reviewing the evidence and the route in which the New York law enforcement agents used GPS tracking technology, the New York courts came to the conclusion that no police or law enforcement agency can use evidence gathered from a GPS vehicle tracking unit unless they first obtained a warrant to use that tracker. The court made it very clear that a warrant must be obtained prior to the installation of a GPS tracker.
The decision New York high courts made regarding the new steps that law enforcement must make prior to using GPS devices may have made it more difficult for police to conduct surveillance operations, but it does create some oversight on the controversial practice.
Virginia GPS Tracking Laws
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- Category: Law Enforcement
- Published on Saturday, 31 December 2011 22:47
- Written by Ryan Horban
- Hits: 114
Appeals Court Says Warrant Not Required
GPS trackers have long been used by police forces as a way to conduct surveillance operations on criminal activity, but many states have yet to create concrete legislation regarding the appropriate use of GPS vehicle tracking devices. Over the past two years, New York and Wisconsin have made headlines for taking different views on whether or not police should be required to gather a warrant before placing a car tracker on a potential criminal’s automobile. New York courts now mandate that police must first obtain a warrant before placing a tracking system upon a suspect’s vehicle, whereas Wisconsin courts took a different stance on the issue, stating that police in the cheese state did not first need to get a warrant before using GPS monitoring systems. Another state that recently made a statement about the appropriate use of car trackers by police was Virginia after an appeals court stated law enforcement agencies could equip a car with a GPS tracker device as long as they did so on a public street.
A Virginia Appeals Court was faced with making a decision about if police used a car tracker appropriately and did not violate the rights of a man who had a long history of sexual abuse/assault. Police in Virginia equipped a GPS vehicle tracker upon the automobile of a man who a) had a history of sexual assault behavior, b) was in the area where some of the sexual assaults had occurred and c) engaged in suspicious activity. Looking to put an end to the string of sexual assaults that had been occurring in the area, police put a GPS tracking device upon the suspects’ car. The GPS data gathered led to evidence and a case against the sexual assault suspect, and he was later arrested for abduction and attempt to defile.
