New York GPS Tracking Laws
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- Category: Law Enforcement
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.
UPDATE: Supreme Court Ruling
New York was one of the very first states to have the judicial branch of government intervene on the topic of GPS tracking among police and law enforcement agencies, but earlier this week the Supreme Court of the United States stepped in to offer a more universal and concrete statement on the application and use of GPS trackers to monitor potential criminals. After reviewing the evidence of a case where police used a GPS tracking device to build a case against a man who actually was committing a federal crime, the Supreme Court voted that since the law enforcement agents who used the GPS vehicle tracker did not first obtain a warrant that they basically infringed on the personal rights and freedoms of the criminal. The case will essentially set the precedent making it required that all police agencies and federal law enforcement agencies first obtain a warrant before placing a GPS tracker on any vehicle.
GPS Tracker Opinion
Do you believe that the New York Police Department, or any law enforcement group for that matter, should first be required to get a permission from a judge before using a GPS tracker?
Did the Supreme Court and New York Court Systems get this case wrong?