Wisconsin Court Upholds Warrantless GPS Tracking by Police
May 11th, 2009Via: Chicago Tribune:
Wisconsin police can attach GPS to cars to secretly track anybody’s movements without obtaining search warrants, an appeals court ruled Thursday.
However, the District 4 Court of Appeals said it was “more than a little troubled” by that conclusion and asked Wisconsin lawmakers to regulate GPS use to protect against abuse by police and private individuals.
As the law currently stands, the court said police can mount GPS on cars to track people without violating their constitutional rights — even if the drivers aren’t suspects.
Officers do not need to get warrants beforehand because GPS tracking does not involve a search or a seizure, Judge Paul Lundsten wrote for the unanimous three-judge panel based in Madison.
That means “police are seemingly free to secretly track anyone’s public movements with a GPS device,” he wrote.
One privacy advocate said the decision opened the door for greater government surveillance of citizens. Meanwhile, law enforcement officials called the decision a victory for public safety because tracking devices are an increasingly important tool in investigating criminal behavior.
I wonder how you could ‘sweep’ a vehicle for this and other unauthorized goodies like cameras and microphones. It would be fun if you find one, and stick on someone else’s car, like a cop’s patrol car 😉
Who watches the “watchers”? Every time some new outlandish revelation pops up and it is revealed that more and more liberties are curtailed we’re presented with “authorities” pooh poohing things and to calm the helots they say that “we need to make sure these measures are not abused”. Yeah! Riiiiggght! Notice they never simply stop and do away with the practice but instead claim to put up safeguards after they’ve been caught with their pants down. The burden is put on YOU citizen to keep an eye on THEM. They have no remorse nor any desire to stop. This is their nature.