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Police Secretly Planting GPS Devices On Cars

Posted by samzenpus on from the spiderman-does-it-all-the-time dept.

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."

6 of 609 comments (clear)

  1. Do the police... by ForestGrump · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Do the police require a warrant if they want to follow me around for the day? If yes then I believe this should require a warrant. Else, what's the diff except it costs much less and is more discrete.

    Grump

    --
    Is it true that more people vote for the winner of American Idol, than vote for the president? -Ali G.
    1. Re:Do the police... by religious+freak · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Eh, I don't know if I'd go quite that far. Police can track you in public, but this thing could track you on private land (maybe your own - esp if you're a farmer or rancher).

      This is ok, but with a warrant, IMHO.

      --
      If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
    2. Re:Do the police... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Probably because in some cases that is exactly what is happening. Speed limits in some areas are set unrealistically low. Local traffic is basically ignored at any speed. Out of state plates will be pulled over and ticketed, even though to be safe they should be flowing with traffic.

      Traffic laws are also subject to politics. We don't get safety all the time. Sometimes it is just the perception of safety. Speed variance is a bigger killer than raw speed, but our speed limits are generally set lower than most drivers can handle. This results in one subset of the population doing the speed limit and the other subset of the population driving at a reasonable rate of speed for the road. So you'll get a spread of, say, 15 mph. A car going 75 is much more likely to hit a car doing 60 than it is to hit another car going 75. But we blame the speeders because they are speeding, rather than seeing that the system is stupid and dangerous.

    3. Re:Do the police... by stewbacca · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Because traffic laws don't exist to promote public safety. Otherwise they'd ticket people who fail to yield, make illegal lane changes and tailgate...all much more dangerous driving habits than breaking the artificially low speed limits that exist solely to generate revenue. IF they must be lazy and just ticket speeders, then why the hell don't they come to my residential street and pull people over for doing 45 in the 25. Instead, they sit on the expressway and give out tickets for 62 in a 55 on an wide-open, empty highway without another car in sight (let alone small children playing in the street).

    4. Re:Do the police... by sleigher · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Well I am certainly not going to cite anything but I will say this in response. When I am going down 280 on the peninsula at 65 and everyone is whizzing past me at 75 I am a hazard. I might be the one following the rules but it is easy to see that I am the one causing the problem. Although I am following the 'law', it easier for an accident to happen simply because the other drivers have to actively avoid me.

      This is only my observation and not a scientific study!

      --
      All points of time and space are connected.
  2. Re:The difference between "following" and "trackin by solitas · · Score: 5, Insightful

    For you, a private citizen, following a police officer or other official while in performance of their duties is illegal.

    It begs to be asked: why?

    --
    "It's time to take life by the cans." ~ Bender ("Bendin' in the Wind", ep. 3-13)