Interesting People mailing list archives
surveillance// GPS tracking
From: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 03:37:56 -0400
------ Forwarded Message From: Hugh Lilly <h.lilly () gmx net> Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 13:30:01 +1200 To: Declan McCullaugh <declan () well com>, dave () farber net Subject: Fw: //surveillance// GPS tracking On Tuesday, May 13, 2003 9:21 AM +1300 [NZST], thinman vlad <thinman () jaydemail com> said:
Interesting story from Seattle. Can police attach a GPS tracking device to a car without a warrant? Is using a GPS tracking device the same as visually following a car? This story has implications beyond catching criminals, as do all surveillance stories. thinman. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/121572_gps12.html By KATHY GEORGE SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER William Bradley Jackson worried that he hadn't properly concealed his victim's shallow grave. So he snuck away one quiet fall day to finish the job, unaware that sheriff's deputies had secretly attached a satellite tracking device to his truck. Police trickery triumphed over his treachery. Spokane County sheriff's investigators used the hidden device to retrace Jackson's path to the gravesite, where they found crucial evidence that would lead to his murder conviction in 2000. But what if the same secret technology, called global positioning satellite tracking, could track anyone at any time? The Washington Supreme Court will decide soon whether police agencies throughout the state may use the device freely -- without a warrant. The Jackson case is the first in the state dealing with the issue. "Do we really want the ability to track everybody all the time, without any suspicion, or without probable cause?" asked Doug Klunder, a Seattle attorney who wrote an amicus brief, or friend of the court, in the case on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington. "How close are we to Big Brother?" Many law enforcement agencies, including the King County Sheriff's Office and King County Prosecutor's Office, believe no warrant is needed for the tracking devices. That's because they simply record electronically what anyone could see by following a vehicle on the public streets. "We'd be shocked if the court said otherwise," said King County sheriff's spokesman Kevin Fagerstrom. In Jackson's case, the state Court of Appeals in Spokane agreed no warrant was needed. The court's opinion last year said, "A law officer could legally follow Mr. Jackson's vehicles on public thoroughfares .... The GPS devices made Mr. Jackson's vehicles visible or identifiable as though the officers had merely cleaned his license plates, or unobtrusively marked his vehicles and made them plain to see." Critics of the Spokane court's opinion say there's a big difference between following someone's real-time movements and recording them for computer analysis later. "There's just something that feels more underhanded about it," said Klunder. It's not just government abuse the ACLU fears. Stalkers could use GPS to find their victims, and jealous husbands could use it to spy on their wives. "If the police can do it without a warrant, then presumably a private citizen can, too," Klunder said.
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- surveillance// GPS tracking Dave Farber (May 13)