GPS Tracking

To Catch a Bike Thief – When a Lock is not Enough

Last month we posted an article about the growing threat of bike thefts in the UK. In 2010, Cambridge was named the UK’s bike theft capital according to a report by the Cambridgeshire County Council. In 2007, it was reported that thieves stole  2,240 bikes in the city, increasing to 2,326 the following year, 2,597 in 2009 and 2,870 in 2010.

As a result of these thefts, local law enforcement officials devised a series of tactics last year aimed at combatting this rampant problem. City police officers employed new crime-busting tactics including a new city centre police team, targeting criminals who sell them and trap bikes or bait bikes fitted with GPS tracking systems to catch, and ultimately deter, the culprits.

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Bad Boys, Bad Boys! Watcha Gonna Do?

Growing up I remember watching the T.V. show COPS, a documentary/reality series, that followed law enforcement officials around during their routine patrols. COPS is one of the longest-running television programs in the United States, and in May 2011 became the longest-running show on the Fox T.V. Network. Each episode would start off with the opening theme song, “Bad Boys,” performed by the reggae group Inner Circle: “Uh, bad boys! Watcha want, watcha want, watcha gonna do? When Sheriff John Brown come for you? … Bad boys, bad boys, watcha gonna do, watcha gonna do when they come for you?”

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New Cellphone Tracking System Receives Approval

Looks like the City of Fort Worth will be getting some technological upgrades, but not necessarily the kind that everyone might find quite so favorable. The Fort Worth City Council recently authorized the purchase of a new cellphone tracking system for its Police Department. The new KingFish system, with a $184,319 price-tag, will give local law enforcement officials the ability to track specific cellphones without having to go through a provider for service.

The new tracking system will be similar to one that has been use for many years by the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service. According to a memo prepared for the City Council prior to the vote, Fort Worth police officers have already begun utilizing the tracking technology, and have also received training from agents with the U.S. Secret Service and the U.S. Marshal’s task force. These agencies have assisted local police in using the cellphone tracking system in the past.

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And the Winner Is…

The 84th Annual Academy Awards were held this past Sunday with all of its elaborate and ornate fanfare. The affair was hosted for the 9th time by Billy Crystal who exclaimed, ”Oscar! Oscar! … You didn’t think I wasn’t going to do this, did ya?”

It’s the one day of the year that actors, directors, and producers…oh, and let’s not forget the fashion designers and tabloid hounds, look forward to the most. It’s a when film and the art of movie making is intentionally celebrated, where awards are handed out for the best actor/actress, director, and of course, the best film for that year. It’s a day where careers are catapulted, acknowledged, praised and cemented in the annuls of filmmaking history.

And so in the spirit of the Oscars, we here at LandAirSea want to announce the winner of our Tuesday GPS Tracking Key Giveaway. And the winner is… TOM BELL!

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Abandoned FBI tracking device

FBI Shuts Down GPS Trackers in Light of Supreme Court Ruling

Last month, the Supreme Court ruled that the unwarranted use of GPS tracking devices by law enforcement violated an individual’s Fourth Amendment rights, which protects citizens against unreasonable search and seizure. Their decision was based on case involving law enforcement and a narcotics dealer, which was heard last Fall.

The case involved a suspected cocaine trafficker in the Washington, D.C. area, whose movements were monitored 24/7 over a 28 day period without a court-issued warrant by the FBI and local police investigators. Some of the information obtained from the GPS tracker was used to convict Antoine Jones of conspiracy to distribute cocaine. The ruling was later overturned by a lower circuit appeals court after they determined that his constitutional rights were violated.

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SilverCloud next to iPhone

Go, Go Gadgeteer

Growing-up, one of my all-time favorite childhood cartoons was Inspector Gadget, that and ThunderCats of course. Inspector Gadget, revolves around the episodic adventures of a clumsy, and often clueless cyborg detective named Inspector Gadget – a bionically enhanced human being who has the ability to call upon various “gadgets” that have been built into his body simply by saying, “Go, go gadget ____ (fill-in the blank).

Even as I sit down to write this post, I fondly recall as a little child how much I wanted to be like Inspector Gadget, with his vast arsenal of gadgets at his immediate disposal. And although I’m now a grown adult man, I still long for the day when I can simply say the words, “Go, go gadget…” and have it appear before me instantaneously.

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LightSquared’s Affect on Current GPS Frequency Usage

In 2005, President Barack Obama, who served as a Senator at the time, invested a significant amount of his personal funds into a company known as SkyTerra, which would later assume the name LightSquared, Inc. The company planned to establish a network of terrestrial (ground-based) communication systems that would allow for unparalleled satellite and mobile device communication. This would allow them to develop a high-speed wireless mobile network, that would be in direct competition with mobile carrier such as AT&T and Verizon.

In January 2011, the FCC granted LightSquared unprecedented access to expand their operations into the wireless internet bandwidth spectrum as part of Obama’s plan to increase access and performance of broadband internet services to people nationwide. Opponents of this expansion, most prominently  the Coalition to Save our GPS, claim that the terrestrial stations will pose a significant signal disruption in the same bandwidth frequency utilized by our country’s GPS tracking constellation of satellites.

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Potential Dangers of GPS Jammers on Global Infrastructure

The Global Positioning System, or GPS, plays an integral part of our every day lives. We use GPS to navigate to specific locations, track fleets of service and construction vehicles, guide ships out at sea, and aid airplanes in the sky. And not only this, financial institutions all over the world utilize GPS technology to provide accurate timestamps for millions of financial transactions across the world each and every single day. Although GPS technology has been available to the civilian public for some time, it’s now becoming a necessary staple in the recent digital age.

And most recently, it’s been discovered that GPS signals can potentially be compromised by terrorist organizations and rogue states, even someone with a rudimentary GPS jammer that can be bought on the Internet for $50, said Todd Humphreys, an expert on GPS with the University of Texas. He was the keynote speaker at a conference of world experts organized by the UK – ICT Knowledge Transfer Network in London yesterday. During his speech, he gave his predictions for what lies ahead with this emerging threat, and his outlook was not favorable.

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GPS Tracking Systems Necessary Tool for Fleet and Construction Professionals

The effective and efficient management of construction equipment is absolutely crucial to maintaining the bottom-line, especially when it comes to company vehicles. One way to help significantly increase the overall efficiency of construction and fleet service vehicles is by installing GPS tracking devices, such as LandAirSea’s SilverCloud.

According to Swedish analyst firm Berg Insight, who specializes in providing analytical projections data and research on machine-to-machine services fleet-management systems for commercial vehicles in North America is growing across the board – including in heavy-industry sectors such as construction. In fact, Berg Insight expects the overall fleet-management market to reach 3.8 million by 2015.

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GPS Trackers Installed for High-Risk Car Loans

Discussions surrounding the practical, theoretical and ethical use of GPS technology is becoming more and more prominent within the media. Not too long ago, GPS technology was still considered relatively new territory in the minds of the vast majority. However, little-by-little, especially with the mass production and distribution of GPS navigation devices, people have begun to understand and value the potential benefits that GPS technology has to offer.

And now with the explosion of smartphones, such as Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android based cell phones, GPS tracking capabilities is becoming rapidly accessible to the general public. Cellular service providers, such as Verizon and AT&T, have been gathering and storing valuable location based information from subscribers and selling that information to third-party businesses.

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