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Police use Warrantless GPS to Track Criminals

By Chris

Police have a new tool to track criminals, and privacy advocates and criminal defense attorneys are crying foul. Across the nation, police are attaching GPS devices to suspects’ cars to track their movements and possibly get incriminating evidence against them. In Madison, Wis., police attached GPS to a car borrowed by a habitual methamphetamine dealer, and discovered he made frequent trips to an area of northwest Wisconsin, according to The Associate Press. Police found a meth lab there, and were there to arrest him on his next visit. Whether or not police need a search warrant to attach a GPS device to a suspect’s car is a question of great debate. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1983 that a warrant is not needed to install so-called beeper devices that tracked a suspect’s movements...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Criminal Defense Blog on May 28, 2009 (boomark / email).