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Police Secretly Planting GPS Devices On Cars

bfwebster writes "The Washington Post has a long investigative article on how more and more police departments are secretly planting GPS tracking devices on the cars of people they are investigating — usually without a warrant. After-the-fact court challenges on this technique have largely upheld such use of a GPS device, though the Washington State Supreme Court has ruled that a warrant is required."

16 of 609 comments (clear)

  1. That's a stupid idea. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Take a device that detects whether or not there is a GPS sending and receiving info, and you find it in a car, dump it in some predetermined location with counter measures, and lead the cops to a trap? Bye bye cops...

  2. If you have nothing to hide by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    I don't see the problem.

    1. Re:If you have nothing to hide by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Me neither.

  3. Possible scenarios by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    At 2:44 PM John Doe visited a strip bar, after stopping by an erotic book store....

    Or.... at 4:54 John Doe visited a book store specialising in conspiracy oriented books. Security cameras and credit card transactions acquired by warrantless NSA surveillance show leaving with David Icke books. John Doe then visits local Dennis Kucinich campaign headquarters. Flag as national security threat for possible detention without habeas corpus, speedy trail by jury, charges, evidence or right to legal representation, and for indefinite incarceration and water boarding at Guantanamo Bay.

  4. Re:Do the police... by Joe+Snipe · · Score: 5, Funny

    Let's try the best analogy: Do the police need a warrant to duct tape a midget to the underside of my car? If yes then I believe this should require a warrant. Else, what's the diff except it costs much less and is more discrete.

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    Sometimes, life itself is sarcasm...
  5. Re:Yes, but... by Penguinisto · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'd think you could take it off and toss it in a dumpster if you found it.

    Wouldn't it be more fun to attach it to a random taxicab instead? If you really want to screw with someone, you could always go to a gas station near a freeway, look for someone towing a boat and obviously on their way to some vacation hotspot, and then attach the device to the boat when its owner isn't looking...

    /P

    --
    Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
  6. Re:Do the police... by roman_mir · · Score: 5, Funny

    It depends, is it an African midget or a European midget?

  7. Re:Do the police... by darthdavid · · Score: 4, Funny

    Are you suggesting that midgets migrate?

  8. Not just the police by ceoyoyo · · Score: 2, Funny

    I was talking to a guy who works at the local university's outdoor program centre. They rent all sorts of camping and sports gear, including handheld GPSs. Apparently a guy came in one day and was interested in renting one. He asked how rugged they were: for instance, suppose it were to be attached to the bumper of my wife's car. Would that be likely to damage it?

  9. Re:Do the police... by Duhavid · · Score: 2, Funny

    But if you drove enough, you could make that .05% *really* hurt them.

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    emt 377 emt 4
  10. New hat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Time to make an oversized tinfoil hat for my car.

  11. Re:Do the police... by icebike · · Score: 5, Funny

    If you really think about this statement, I think you'll find it to be demonstrably false.

    No he was spot on.

    It is the speed variance that kills.

    The ditch on that corner he failed to negotiate was only going zero miles per hour. The total variance was probably in excess of 70mph.

    Same for that 2mph pedestrian he killed last week.

    --
    Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
  12. Re:Do the police... by 1729 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Do the police require warrants to bug my house? YES! The difference between my house and my car is very little so yes they need warrants too.

    Yes, but do the police need a warrant to put a GPS tracker on your house?

  13. Woo Hoo!! by patomuerto · · Score: 2, Funny
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    I have secretly hidden some mispelled words in this post. Can you find them?
  14. It's Like a Car... by florescent_beige · · Score: 2, Funny

    The way I look at this is that the car with the GPS on it is like a...car see? With a device. On it.

    You have to imagine the GPS satellites driving around on big...highways...except way up in the sky. Kind of like really fast...flying cars. Way up there.

    So the car drives around like, if you follow me, the car, and then the other cars that are, um, way, um, up there. Can see it through their windshields because they are like...cars, see?

    And then that all does stuff like that, and then the police go where the "car" is by using transportation of a nature that can best be understood by imagining a car, only it has police in it.

    So that's the best way to understand all that.

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    Equine Mammals Are Considerably Smaller
  15. Re:Who watches the cops? by syberdave · · Score: 2, Funny

    Park your car in view of your security camera. You do have a security camera, right?

    But doesn't that defeat the purpose of having a car?