GPS Monitoring Provides Hard Evidence in Courtroom
If satellite technology had been in existence 75 years ago, notorious bank robbers like Bonnie and Clyde might have gotten a more serious run for their money!
Originally developed by the United States Department of Defense for such military applications as navigation, target tracking, and searches and rescues, GPS tracking systems have been heralded as the new method with which to fight crime and ensure public safety. They are increasingly finding their way into America’s courtrooms as an effective means of producing certain evidence that was not available even ten years ago.
Global positioning systems (GPS) are able to identify a suspect’s physical location using the numerous satellites that orbit the earth. Offenders wearing GPS tracking devices enable law enforcement officials to track the whereabouts and movements of these offenders almost second by second.
GPS Tracking Key Instrumental in Arrest of Armed Robbery Suspect
In Colusa County, California, last winter, a GPS Tracking Key installed in the vehicle of an armed robbery suspect ultimately led to his arrest and conviction, thereby ending the outbreak of convenience store holdups that had been taking place. During one such escapade, a man wearing a ski mask and carrying a sawed off firearm, entered the convenience store portion of a gas station and began threatening the store’s owner. Prior to that time, the Tracking Key had detected the arrival of the suspect’s vehicle two blocks away from the crime scene and recorded the departure of the vehicle shortly thereafter. Coupled with DNA evidence and findings from a search warrant, the Tracking Key provided the Colusa County Sheriff’s Department with enough conclusive data to make an arrest.
GPS Tracking Key Leads to Murder Investigation
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A charge of reckless endangerment quickly changed to one of murder based on information provided by a GPS Tracking Key that had been placed in the truck of the accused.
In Chenango County, New York, last month, George Ford claimed to have accidentally killed his 12 year-old passenger while driving her home after babysitting. However, the Tracking Key, surreptitiously installed in the vehicle by his suspicious wife, gave evidence to the contrary by determining Ford’s first stop to be at an abandoned house rather than a pasture as he had initially stated. To test the reliability of the tracking device, NBC news correspondents purchased their own tracking key from LandAirSea Systems and were amazed to learn that it had followed their every move.
Personal protection and security or unconstitutional invasion of privacy?
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Because the Global Positioning System (GPS) allows law enforcement officials to closely monitor an individual’s precise movements, it poses many questions regarding the constitutionality of satellite based tracking as an investigative tool. To officially search the property of an individual requires a warrant; must GPS tracking be defined as a search, thereby requiring a preauthorized warrant as well?
Or is the right to information greater than the right to privacy when it comes to solving crimes, especially those that are the greatest threat to public safety and security?
GPS Serves as Deterrent to Criminal Behavior
GPS is still a relatively new tool, an emerging experiment that promises numerous benefits to the field of law enforcement and the criminal justice system. While its technology cannot actually prevent a crime from taking place, it has been proven to be critical in placing a suspect near or at the scene of a committed crime. When GPS technology is applied to law enforcement strategies, police officers are able to perform their duties more efficiently and with a greater degree of safety.
Tags: courtroom, criminal, GPS, GPS Tracking, laws, legal, Murder, robbery, Vehicle Tracking
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