GPS Tracking

Every day, stalkers, petty criminals and drug dealers are locked behind bars, nabbed with the help of one of the fastest-growing surveillance technologies in law enforcement: the GPS tracking device.

One such criminal, Bernardo Garcia, was recently convicted of manufacturing methamphetamine in northwest Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation mounted a passive vehicle tracking device on his car and tracked him to his manufacturing site. A spokesman for the police unit said that investigators use GPS tracking units on about 75 suspect vehicles a year. An appeals judge ruled that drug agents had good reason to suspect Garcia of drug dealing and were justified in using the GPS tracking unit to bust him.

GPS tracking systems use signals from satellites to determine exact location of a receiver. The device used to nab Garcia was a passive vehicle tracking device. It had to be removed from the vehicle and the GPS tracking data downloaded onto a personal computer. Passive GPS tracking devices are helpful to police because they provide a detailed history of a vehicle’s movements that is powerful evidence, proven effective over and over again, in courts of law.

In general, police can freely place vehicle tracking units on suspects’ cars when the vehicles are parked on public streets, in parking lots, or in view of the public on a private driveway. Courts are still referring to a 1983 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said people should have no expectation of privacy in public places.

GPS tracking is widely used by police, and quite affordable, considering It saves untold hours in manpower. One investigator described GPS tracking technology simply as “a way to work smarter.”

Tags: Crime, GPS Tracking, Law Enforcement

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 at 10:17 am and is filed under All Articles, GPS Tracking, GPS Tracking in Action, Law Enforcement. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.