Without warrants, police use trackers to follow suspects (Kentucky)

[Blue_Tires]

After a three-month investigation, the Register can reveal today that multiple local law enforcement agencies are using satellite-based tracking devices, without warrants, to keep a record of where and when suspects under investigation drive.

The devices use the same Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites that portable navigation devices and cellular phones use to give directions, but these devices are used in a much different manner, a practice that has members of the local legal community concerned.

The Central Kentucky Area Drug Task Force, a joint agency comprised of officers from the Madison, Clark, Garrard and Jackson sheriff’s offices and the Berea Police Department, has spent nearly $18,000 over the past two years to purchase a variety of systems designed to allow officers to track the movement of vehicles covertly using GPS satellites.

Task force director Rick Johnson confirmed in an interview that his agency does own three of the devices, and has used them, but declined to give any specific details beyond stating that they were installed without obtaining warrants.

Johnson also said during the course of his interview that Commonwealth’s Attorney David Smith, whose office prosecutes all felony cases in Madison Circuit Court, was not being notified of the use of GPS trackers “because he hasn’t asked which cases they’re being used in.”

“It’s not something we’ve intentionally tried to hide from prosecutors,” Johnson said.

http://www.richmondregister.com/archivesearch/local_story_269181005.html

[voteearlyvoteoften]

1. OMG they might be growing pot!!!!

You've got to be kidding me.
I hope they lose their jobs.
What is this...a movie?

[imdjh]

3. These ridiculous locations got Homeland money, and sat down with a catalogue.

[Dogtown]

5. There you go, imdjh

HomeShoppingNetwork for Porkers.

[wroberts189]

10. and said "to hell with terrorists...lets go after the dope smokers!" nt

[wroberts189]

11. woops meant to post to the OP thread..sorry nt

[wroberts189]

12. actually ...it works both ways (op subject and you're post) I will go with both.

[BlooInBloo]

13. Silliness - everybody knows they auto-erotically self-asphyxiate.

[imdjh]

2. Your Homeland Defense dollars at work. nt

[Echo In Light]

17. I'd like a refund immediately

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. This was predicted about 2 seconds after GPS was put in cars.

I am amazed that the "suspects" are not sufficiently paranoid to avoid cars with working GPS in them.

[voteearlyvoteoften]

6. I think they are hiding tracking devices under the cars.

That was my impression.

[imdjh]

7. The thing I don't get about "unsettled areas of law" is the presumption of legality.

It's one thing for the public to presume that something new (and presumably harmless) is legal. It's quite another for a law enforcement agency to assume that a new technology is legal, and to use it until some citizen puts his assets and freedom on the line to test it in court.

As an average Joe, my first guess as a LEO employee would be that a tracking device attached to a person's vehicle would be illegal. It's private property and you don't have the right to attach something to it.

[wroberts189]

9. I wonder what the charges would be if the situation were reversed.

Someone at the G20 just got raided by a swat team for text messaging the cops locations to protesters based on scanner reception so they could avoid the very areas cops did not want them in..



knr

[wroberts189]

16. That would be my guess as well... magnetic. nt

[wroberts189]

14. And 2 seconds after the Patriot Act was passed as well. Right here on DU. nt

[wroberts189]

15. Actually its passive unless it can transmit where you are.

It is simply picking signals from a satellite. Unless it can transmit that data out... maybe through Onstar or something it's not a problem.


GPS has saved my life..cut down on stress.. driving is rough for some of us.

[populistdriven]

8. GPS jammer - there are many varieties out there

http://boingboing.net/2009/07/30/gps-jammer-plugs-int.html

[ProgressiveProfessor]

18. Illegal, but useful

Be interesting to see what frequencies the trackers are transmitting on. Easier to block those since they would be in unlicensed part of the spectrum

[populistdriven]

19. I think they are just gps dataloggers that get pulled for downloading

[lib2DaBone]

20. Nothing like a small-time pot bust to keep the money flowing...

Hell.. all you have to do is arrest some poor guy sitting in his living room smoking a MJ cigarette, and you can get your very own tank from Homeland Security with an LRAD mounted on top!

[Blue_Tires]

21. ttt