GPS Tracking

Construction Home Thefts A Growing Issue

Seems like thieves and burglars have taken a larger interest in homes that are in the process of being built.

We recently shared a story on a proposed tactic by the Dallas (Texas) Police Chief to effectively catch and prevent thieves from stealing various items from construction home sites. Last Wednesday, City of Dallas police chief David Brown, presented his plan before the City Council to expand the department’s use technology to battle burglaries and thefts in the city’s top crime spots.

One of the proposed tactics was to adopt the same idea of bait cars and bait bikes, which utilize GPS tracking devices to hunt down thieves who steal cars and bicycles, on homes that are under construction. Oftentimes, contractors and construction workers leave valuable and expensive tools onsite at the end of each work day, and usually there are no safeguards to protect them from being stolen.

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Where Americans Lost their Phones the Most

According to an industry report, Americans along lost roughly $30 billion worth of mobile phones in 2011. Statistics showed that Philadelphia topped the charts, where more cellphones were lost than any other city in the U.S. The mobile security firm, Lookout Labs, who published the report, based its findings on data from 15 million users who downloaded its Android app that locates lost devices by utilizing the GPS tracking feature found on most smartphones.

The top five cities in the U.S. for phone loss in 2011 were Philadelphia, Seattle, Oakland, Long Beach and Newwark. The report also found that San Franciscans and New Yorkers lose their phones three times more often than Chicagoans. Another interesting statistic showed that four out of the ten cities with the highest rates of lost and stolen phones – Cleveland, Detroit, Oakland and Newark – were also among the ten cities with the highest crime rates.

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Smartphones have become a Vital Part of Everyday Life

In many ways, smartphones have significantly enhanced the way we live, work and interact with others. Many of us use our iPhones or Android powered devices to browse the web, check our emails, listen to music, send text messages, play visually stunning video games, read their favorite books, watch  movies, and even navigate from place to place.

Some people would even go so far as to say that they would not be able to function on a day-to-day basis without their smartphones. Their entire lives are literally on their phones – name, address, personal email, bank accounts, photos, passwords, etc. It would be catastrophic if, for some reason, they were to either lose or have their smartphones stolen from them. And in the case that something of this magnitude were to occur, they would want to have their phones returned, but what are the chances of that happening today?

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Find My iPad Tracking App Lead Police to Biggest Crystal Meth Bust

Last Thursday, local police near San Jose, CA, accidentally stumbled on the biggest stash of crystal meth in the history of the United States. Initially, they were tracking a stolen iPad with the installed Find my iPad app, which led them to an apartment complex in Palo Alto. The officers knocked on the door and asked the occupants for permission to come in.

The residents allowed them to come in, to which they shockingly discovered roughly 780 pounds of crystal meth worth about $35 million dollars, scattered throughout apartment. Assistant District Attorney David Tomkins said, “They probably thought if they didn’t, we’d suspect something… or they thought, ‘I’ll let them in – they probably won’t find anything.’” Apparently, it looks like they found more than just a stolen iPad.

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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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Unwarranted Use of GPS Tracker in Ohio Burglary Case

The Ohio Supreme Court will review an Appeals Court reversal of a Columbus man’s conviction for breaking into a home near Baltimore, Ohio.

David L. White, 24, pleaded no contest in November 2010, to improperly discharging a firearm into or at a habitation, aggravated burglary and aggravated robbery. White was sentenced to 25 years in prison altogether, with 13 years suspended.

He was accused of breaking into a home on January 23, 2010, near Baltimore with co-defendant Montie E. Sullivan. Sullivan, 19, of Columbus, pleaded no contest in October 2010 to one count of improperly discharging a firearm into a habitation and one count of aggravated burglary. He was sentenced to 19 years in prison.

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GPS Device Tracks Down ‘Sin Bad’

The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that Sherburne County investigators did not violate the Constitution when they attached a GPS tracker to a burglary suspect’s work vehicle and used it to track him to a burglary scene.

Deputies used the GPS tracking device to track the suspect, Sin Santo Bad, to a residential house as he was cleaning out a safe.

Sin Santo Bad was convicted of first-degree burglary and sentenced to 11 years in prison. Bad appealed the conviction, contending that placing the GPS tracker on a truck he used at work constituted an illegal search, and in direct violation of his Fourth Amendment rights. Bad’s attorneys requested that the evidence investigators obtained after his arrest should be suppressed.

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Police Employ New Tactics to Combat Rampant Bike Thefts

Bike theft is a serious problem in Cambridge (UK). In 2010, the city 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 this growing issue, 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 fitted with GPS tracking systems to deter and catch the culprits.

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Stolen Taxicab Tracked in Denver

A man was arrested in Denver, CO this past Wednesday after law enforcement officials said he stole a taxi, robbed a convenience store and then led police officers on a chase that ended when he crashed the cab into a tree in the Civic Center Park.

According to a local police report, the suspect stole an orange Union Taxi mini-van and then drove it to a Diamond Shamrock at around 1 a.m.

After robbing the convenience store, the suspect took off again in the stolen cab. The taxi was equipped with a GPS tracking device, which allowed police to track the precise location of the vehicle. The suspect led officers on a late-night chase, which ended with the cab going off the street and onto a sidewalk, where he then smashed in to a tree near downtown Denver.

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Tracking Burglars Through GPS

The City of Santa Fe, NM introduced a new system designed to track convicted burglars by utilizing GPS devices rather than putting them in jail. The Santa Fe Police began tracking the first offender last week. This new program will start with just five GPS tracking devices in order to gauge its effectiveness and ability to collect data.

According to a report from ABC News, Santa Fe Police Capt. Aric Wheeler, said the idea for the program originated as an alternative to repetitive incarceration, which can get pretty expensive for taxpayers. They also found that jail time did very little to deter these repeat offenders from committing more burglaries.

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