Police Tracking your Cars

Wisconsin court upholds GPS tracking by police

By RYAN J. FOLEY |Associated Press Writer2:42 PM CDT, May 7, 2009 MADISON, Wis. - 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.

The ruling came in a 2003 case involving Michael Sveum, a Madison man who was under investigation for stalking. Police got a warrant to put a GPS on his car and secretly attached it while the vehicle was parked in Sveum's driveway. The device recorded his car's movements for five weeks before police retrieved it and downloaded the information.

The information suggested Sveum was stalking the woman, who had gone to police earlier with suspicions. Police got a second warrant to search his car and home, found more evidence and arrested him. He was convicted of stalking and sentenced to prison.

Sveum, 41, argued the tracking violated his Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure. He argued the device followed him into areas out of public view, such as his garage.

The court disagreed. The tracking did not violate constitutional protections because the device only gave police information that could have been obtained through visual surveillance, Lundsten wrote.

Even though the device followed Sveum's car to private places, an officer tracking Sveum could have seen when his car entered or exited a garage, Lundsten reasoned. Attaching the device was not a violation, he wrote, because Sveum's driveway is a public place.

"We discern no privacy interest protected by the Fourth Amendment that is invaded when police attach a device to the outside of a vehicle, as long as the information obtained is the same as could be gained by the use of other techniques that do not require a warrant," he wrote.

Although police obtained a warrant in this case, it wasn't needed, he added.

Larry Dupuis, legal director of the ACLU of Wisconsin, said using GPS to track someone's car goes beyond observing them in public and should require a warrant.

"The idea that you can go and attach anything you want to somebody else's property without any court supervision, that's wrong," he said. "Without a warrant, they can do this on anybody they want."

Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen's office, which argued in favor of the warrantless GPS tracking, praised the ruling but would not elaborate on its use in Wisconsin.

David Banaszynski, president of the Wisconsin Chiefs of Police Association, said his department in the Milwaukee suburb of Shorewood does not use GPS. But other departments might use it to track drug dealers, burglars and stalkers, he said.

A state law already requires the Department of Corrections to track the state's most dangerous sex offenders using GPS. The author of that law, Rep. Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford, said the decision shows "GPS tracking is an effective means of protecting public safety."

It keeps getting worse and worse people. I don't know what you think but i think this is a violation of our 4th amendment.. but who cares about the constitution now days.

If anything we need to have gps's on the police cars so we know where our tax dollars are driving around (i'm kidding.. yet serious )

Originally Posted by medicineman

Yup, isn't paranoia grand. I think the cops have a lot more pertinent things to do than follow pot smokers around all day, at least I'd hope they do. They can track you by satelite if they really want to. You have to look at the big picture. Say they have a "terror" suspect and want to know his whereabouts, his friends etc, seems like this would be a good Idea. Don't get me wrong, I'm strictly against police abuses of the fourth amendment, and I also believe they should be required to get a warrant to do this. That would at least make them present some credible evidence that this was warranted. But going balistic because they are doing this is silly. Lets concentrate on things like unlawful search and seizure of our automobiles and homes. Seems to me that these are way more important than some silly GPS attachment.

True, until it happens to you. lets just say by total coincidence that you visited the same places as some serial killer and the police arrested you. you go to court being totally innocent, but are found guilty because of the GPS evidence. What would you say then? Its not always about getting the right person who committed the crime, but sometimes just getting SOMEONE for it that appeases the populace.

Besides, unless they can prove it was YOU in the car at the time it could have been your brother, sister,wife, kid , uncle, neighbor who just borrowed the car. Maybe your car was stolen? who knows but they will sure try to pin it on you.

I think its wrong, and like you I also believe a warrant should be mandatory to behave in such a way. FWIW you can be tracked by satellite, but the police sure don't have that capability so we can forget about that. I just can't see some flat footed flookie down at the cop shop in control of a billion dollar satellite.

The vast majority of us will not be tracked, its just too expensive, but if they could do it they sure as hell would. Just like if a new law came out saying its ok to warrantlessly search houses for anything illegal and the black booted thugs drag you out of your home in the middle of the night so they can toss your house and go through your whole life looking for anything to arrest you with. letting them attach devices to others personal property without a warrant will only morph into more erosion of the peoples Liberty. We give a little and they take a lot.