surveillance// GPS tracking

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ 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.

-- 
               © 2002 Hugh Lilly. | PGP ID: 0x064D2C0D
                    blog: http://hugh.orcon.net.nz
   Registered Linux User # 295486, register @ http://counter.li.org
                    80% of statistics are wrong.



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