Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources is looking to launch a pilot program next year that would track the movements of commercial fishing boats via GPS.
law enforcement
A bipartisan group of former law enforcement and government officials have appealed the White House to impose checks on law enforcement agencies and their ability to utilize GPS technology.
The controversy surrounding warrant-less GPS tracking seems easily tempered when the result of said tracking is the justifiable arrest of a repeated sex offender, burglar or drug trafficker. Even with recent results of warrant-less GPS tracking of U.S. residents leading to the apprehension of actual criminals, there are probably plenty more undocumented incidences in which [...]
Portland, Oregon is often perceived the liberal-leaning, sweet-smelling rose of the Pacific Northwest. Fairy tale perception aside, all cities have their issues. Gang violence is a rather serious one that's plagued Rip City as of late. Last month, a gang-related shooting spree in the downtown area left local authorities searching for solutions to, if not [...]
The last few weeks you couldn’t randomly toss a homing device in the air without it latching onto a story about the use of GPS tracking in the law enforcement arena. Okay, you could have, but none of those other stories ever seemed to go anywhere. Back on August 28th, the U.S. Court of Appeals [...]
There are many ways to break the law, most of which lead a criminal straight to prison. White-collar and non-violent crimes are just as rampant, if not more so, than violent crimes, and yet we choose to punish the offenders the same way: by confining them in dingy prisons controlled by the government. Do carjackers [...]
It has come up in many a court whether or not tracking a suspect with a GPS tracker is legal. Is it a breach of the fourth amendment? Is a tracker a form of “unreasonable searches”? Need it be dependent on a warrant “upon probable cause supported by Oath or affirmation”? Is it in violation [...]
After the court case of State vs. Sveum, the Supreme Court ruled that it’s perfectly legal for a police officer to secretly attach a GPS tracking device to the car of a possible suspect. According to them, the act of tracking a potential suspect violates neither personal rights nor the 4th Amendment (right against search [...]
Police for years now have been using GPS technology to both stop criminals from escaping and for keeping tabs on them after they’ve been caught, thus making it an extremely successful tool in law enforcement. Recently, however, stories have begun to surface regarding GPS systems that are being used on the wrong side of the [...]
