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TechnoratiUnder Surveillance: Backers of Privacy Rights Track GPS Use
WASHINGTON - Someone was attacking women in Northern Virginia, grabbing them from behind, and sometimes punching and molesting them before running away. After logging 11 cases in six months, police finally identified a suspect.
David Lee Foltz Jr., who had served 17 years in prison for rape, lived near the crime scenes. To figure out whether Foltz was the assailant, police pulled out their secret weapon: They put a Global Positioning System device on Foltz's van, which allowed them to track his movements.
Police said they soon caught Foltz dragging a woman into woods in Falls Church, Va. After his arrest on Feb. 6, the string of assaults suddenly stopped. The break in the case relied largely on a crime-fighting tool they would rather not discuss.
"We don't really want to give any info on how we use it as an investigative tool, to help the bad guys," said Officer Shelley Broderick, a Fairfax, Va., police spokeswoman.
Across the country, police are using GPS devices to snare thieves, drug dealers, sexual predators, and killers, often without a warrant or court order.
Privacy advocates said tracking suspects electronically constitutes illegal search and seizure, violating Fourth Amendment rights, and is another step toward George Orwell's Big Brother society.
Law enforcement officials, when they discuss the issue at all, said GPS is essentially the same as having an officer trail someone, just cheaper and more accurate. Most of the time, as was done in the Foltz case, judges have sided with police.
With some courts supporting the tactic and the declining cost of the technology, many analysts believe that police will increasingly rely on GPS as a tool in investigations. Last year, FBI agents used a GPS device while investigating an embezzlement scheme to steal from D.C. taxpayers, attaching one to a suspect's Jaguar.
"I've seen them in cases from New York City to small towns - whoever can afford to get the equipment and plant it on a car," said John Wesley Hall, president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. "And of course, it's easy to do. You can sneak up to a car and plant it at any time."
Details on how police use GPS usually become public when the evidence is challenged in court. Such cases have revealed how police in Washington state arrested a man on a charge of killing his 9-year-old daughter: the GPS device attached to his truck led them to her body.
Cases have shown how detectives in New York caught a drug-runner after monitoring his car as he bought and sold methamphetamine. In Wisconsin, police tracked and caught two suspected burglars by attaching a GPS device to their car.
The Foltz case offers a rare glimpse into how a Washington area police department uses GPS.
Foltz's attorney, Chris Leibig, challenged police in court last week and tried to have the GPS evidence thrown out.
He argued at a hearing at Arlington County (Va.) General District Court that police needed a warrant because the device tracked Foltz's vehicle on private and public land.
The judge disagreed, and the evidence will be used at Foltz's trial, which will begin Oct. 6. Foltz was charged in the Feb. 6 attack, but not in the others.
GPS advocates said police do not need a warrant to track suspects electronically on public streets because the device provides the same information as physical tracking.
"A police officer could do the same thing with his or her own eyes," said Richard E. Trodden, the Arlington commonwealth's attorney. "It helps to cut down on the number of police officers who would have to be out tracking particular cars."
Leibig said GPS should be held to a different standard because it provides greater detail.
"While it may be true that police can conduct surveillance of people on a public street without violating their rights, tracking a person everywhere they go and keeping a computer record of it for days and days without that person knowing is a completely different type of intrusion," he said.
© 2008 The Washington Post
12 Comments so far
Show AllBraithwa842 - Check out the book on RFID tagging 'Chipping In'. It has all the info on the GPS chips in your cell phone. And yes, you do have to pull the battery to power it down. And yes, the police and other agencies can use your cell phone as remote bug, with a frightening range. Combine this with PROMIS software and word recognition AI, and you have NO secrets.
@jcrumb August 14th, 2008 3:13 pm
Absolutely fascinating post.
Can you find a link re:- "the abiliy to do 'Dial a bug' the actually
real capacity to call a phone and have it go into speaker mode and be a
listening device"
I find that scary. Its not that there is anything at our place WORTH
listening to, but I had no idea that the police could listen when the
phone is off.
Of course, this is only too scary when you dont trust the government.
If you trusted the government, then this would be all fine. But you
know there will be a day when we will KNOW that the government is our
real enemy.
@Galen August 14th, 2008 6:29 pm "EVERY SINGLE modern cell phone has a
GPS locator chip in it. It is always on, broadcasting your location."
I knew they were able to triangulate from the mobile phone towers, but I
didnt know they had a GPS. Do you have a link for that? Is it always
on unless you remove the battery?
Anyoone know how it works? Does the phone contact the GPS satelite to
learn its location, and then report its location to the mobile phone
towers? Or does the GPS satelite do the reporting already?
If the technology becomes cheap enough, it is bound to find its way into
everything, for inventory purposes, not just cars and phones. Now where
did I leave my glasses? Dont worry, I will just check the GPS records
on the internet.
When is the main stream media going to report the truth?
The USA Patriot Act has allocated about 60-70 billion dollars per year over the last 6 years to private corporations for the purpose of spying on all Americans.
Read "Spies For Hire " by Tim Shorock.
Local law enforcement use the IAFF ( International fire Fighters ) and EMS personal world wide to co-ordinate local community watch groups for the purpose of 24/7 surveillance.
CACI , Lockheed, and L3 Communications provide nation wide computer networks,personal, and training for the new nationwide spy network.
This is big money, and they will create suspects to ensure the money train. This is which hunting to the max , looking for terrorists and home grown terrorists.
Welcome to the new police stazi regime. THE USA.
Land of the Free?
No , Land of Spys.
We need freedom of the press to report the truth, but they cant, because company's, and the major media have been recruited.
BornFreeMan
Victim of Community watch Stazi police torture surveillance 18 months and counting.
Bradenton Florida
"Just so you all know.
EVERY SINGLE modern cell phone has a GPS locator chip in it. It is always on, broadcasting your location. IF you have a cell phone, the PTB know where you are."
My phone has a setting to shut this off, but I think having it on insures my safety.
HEH! If it works sooo good as a tracking device on suspects, how much more effective if the man had a chip buried in his upper GI? And of course, you can't know in advance who's going to be bad, so EVERYONE must have one implanted. That way, if someone, anyone becomes a "suspect" for anything, the Blue Meanies just turn on that switch. Gotcha Mr. Protester Commie! Maybe Fritz the Cat has a cute trick to turn that cell phone gps bugger off, or make it give a false signal. Low tech solutions transform million$$ in hi-tech into worthless junk. Be creative.
Just so you all know.
EVERY SINGLE modern cell phone has a GPS locator chip in it. It is always on, broadcasting your location. IF you have a cell phone, the PTB know where you are.
I am an advocate for privacy rights. I am a libertarian.
Despite that, I tend to agree with the police that this is just an advanced method of the old stakeout...with less risk since you can follow at a greater distance.
The issue then becomes what rules should apply to when and how these are used.
The example of the suspect rapist seems like a perfect example to me...
…and (not so) oddly..it's an Israeli outfit..
The Israelis are really giving the Jews a bad name (and the Palestinean population a bad time of course).
You can buy these online..the REAL DEAL..police model..there is one outlet in particular..that changes it's name..why I do not know...maybe because in the world of 'product' they are..VERY real...and oddly..it's an Israeli outfit..
They sell the trackers and the receiver..they sell phone line devices to make your phone give busy signals...to..ringing and ringin..on the other end that is..so you never know...
I am alway's surprised by the fact that so FEW people know that since the 1980's...there has been a small "fine"..well.."fee" for having your phone OFF THE HOOK for long periods of time...and of course..this was done ..oddly timed of course..immediately after the CALEA legisaltion..the "Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Agencies nightmare that mandated that all telephone EQUIPMENT be..USER FRIENDLY for the Pigs to listen etc..
By leaving your phone off th hook..you counter the abiliy to do 'Dial a bug' the actually real capacity to call a phone and have it go into speaker mode and be a listening device...thus you must PAY to leave yor phone off the hook and...block that capability...this is true..it really is..
In fact SO easy is it to listen to phone calls and to intercept computer data etc...as per CALEA..that if you currently live in a GATED community or DEVELOPMENT...you can "Beige Box" any oen of your neighbors or your own phone...as the Biege colored rectangular "poles" that are on the sides of the street..those are the phone switchig posts..and have NUMEROUS extra inputs..so you can quite litterally simply plug in a phone jak and liten in..an instant giant party line...or..you can go to the empty slots and use the phone WITHOUT it being "registered" to an address...etc..etc..etc..and thus..for REAL CRIMINALS with ANY savvy...the concept of being survielled by the Gestapo..is pretty limited..this is ALL about fear in the public collective conscience..cause the fear of being "watched" all the time and SELF MONITOR your behaviour..PAY your taxes..etc..etc..etc..Good Little Peons...Sheep...little money sources for the rabid machine...paying for their own demise..and too afraid of being watched or dissapeared to actually make ANY kind of "stand' even if all that was required was to ..NOT PAY...too much FEAR...and..admittedly with good reason..but still...simple..FEAR..not an excuse...but a good rational..there is a difference...
We need to satrt survielling the PIGS and their families...the local city council memebers and their squalid affairs etc...our own "drones" and "GPS tracking" see where THEY GO..and then PUBLISH IT...Besides simply not FINANCING these Operations and the end of liberty..the only other really effective way to get the point accross..is to...MAKE THE POINT...is Chertoffs house on Google Streets?..Doubt it...so..we SHOW them..IN THE SHOWER...play THEIR PHONE CALLS BACK ON YOUTUBE...etc..etc..
An like that..oh yeah..another thing to remember...PAINT BALLS...great little tactic for fuckig with the Corporate fascists...and STINK BOMBS..smoke Bombs..etc..etc...the more innocent NON-VIOLENT fun we have with them..and make them react VIOLENTLY..then they are shown for what they are...
"man gunned down by police after throwing pie at city council memeber.." etc...
Watch your backs!
I wonder if hijackers and kidnappers have thought of using GPS or cell phones to track their victims.
if they get a court order and have probable cause to use this device, I don't see how this differs from tapping someones phone. We require a court order for that and the person does not know know his phone is tapped.
"...tracking a person everywhere they go and keeping a computer record of it for days and days without that person knowing is a completely different type of intrusion," he said. Isn't that what "OnStar" is for?