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TECHNOLOGY A23
Monday 5 October 2015
Hidden GPS devices to track suspects raise legal concerns
MICHAEL BALSAMO the embedding of GPS de- that when people steal wittingly possessing some- fishbowl society, the gov-
Associated Press vices pre-emptively in ob- something containing a thing implanted with a GPS ernment can now track us
MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) — For jects that are apt to be sto- tracking device, police are device. in real time in the fishbowl,”
months, police trying to len. Nor did it address how within their rights to go af- “Just because Jim steals Turley said.
solve a Long Island robbery long police can engage in ter them. For decades, po- the money, maybe the GPS is the 21st-century ver-
spree had little more to go tracking or how they can lice have been catching one wad that had the GPS sion of the exploding dye
on than grainy surveillance use that information. car thieves through LoJack was one he gave to pay pack that bank tellers slip
footage of a man in a That has left judges with radio-tracking devices. off a loan, or he borrowed into the bag of money dur-
hoodie and black ski mask little guidance. But civil libertarians said a a friend’s car and left that ing a holdup. The pack
holding up one gas station “This is the latest chapter in legal issue could arise if po- one there,” said New York blows up outside the bank,
or convenience store after the challenge to the Fourth lice deliberately leave the lawyer Amy Marion. staining the robber and the
another. Amendment by new tech- tracker on for an extended In a case on appeal in Buf- cash.
That was until the gunman When someone walks out
made off with a stack of In this Aug. 12, 2015 photo, a map is displayed at a news conference at the Nassau County the door with a GPS track-
bills that investigators had er, a silent activation signal
secretly embedded with a District Attorney’s Office in Mineola, N.Y., that shows the gas stations that Jason Golson-Orelus is is sent to police. Officers
GPS tracking device. can then use an online
Within days, a suspect ac- accused of robbing. Associated Press map, updated every few
cused of pulling off nearly seconds, to pinpoint the
a dozen heists — including nology,” said George amount of time to find out, falo, a bank robbery de- object’s location,
one in which a clerk was Washington University con- for example, what other fendant who police say The use of GPS has expand-
killed — was behind bars, stitutional law professor crimes the suspect might was caught with a GPS- ed as the devices have
and officers were credit- Jonathan Turley. “There is be mixed up in. tagged bag of money is gotten smaller. Trackers as
ing technology that has always a concerntechnol- “As a baseline, I don’t think challenging his conviction, thin as a pencil can be hid-
become commonplace ogy can outstrip existing people should be tracked though not on constitution- den in wads of about two
over the past five years or constitutional law. Now it’s with GPS without a war- al grounds. He contends dozen bills.
so. up to the courts to decide rant,” said Jay Stanley, the cash was not enough They are also slipped into
“Those tools are part of our when police departments a policy analyst with the to convict him. “bait bottles” of pills to
arsenal,” Nassau County can use this technology to American Civil Liberties The use of GPS highlights thwart drugstore thieves.
Police Chief Steven Skry- facilitate an arrest and Union. “If somebody steals what some experts be- The bottles are typically
necki said after the arrest prosecution.” an object and the police moan as the fast-shrinking kept behind the counter
this summer, adding that So far, there have been don’t arrest them for six zone of privacy nowadays, and are handed over by
GPS is now used “as a mat- few constitutional chal- months and just collect when security cameras are the pharmacist if a robber
ter of course in our investi- lenges, in part because information about how seemingly on every block, demands drugs.
gations.” the technology is new, but they’re living their life, that wireless devices broad- The maker of the painkiller
But the tiny satellite-con- also because some defen- could be problematic.” cast our locations and toll- OxyContin says such bot-
nected devices — embed- dants have pleaded guilty. Also, legal experts wor- booths electronically re- tles used in 33 states have
ded by the manufacturer Legal experts said the ry that innocent people cord our travels. helped police make nearly
or slipped by police into courts have generally held could get in trouble for un- “Not only are we living in a 160 arrests.
stacks of cash, pill bottles In Redlands, California, a
or other commonly stolen criminal attached a “skim-
items — are raising ques- mer” — a device for steal-
tions from legal experts ing people’s credit card
over what they see as the numbers — to a gas pump.
potential for abuse by Police put GPS on the skim-
law enforcement authori- mer, then caught the sus-
ties. They wonder whether pect after he collected the
some of these cases will equipment.
stand up in court. In other cases, officers
In 2012 the U.S. Supreme have made arrests through
Court took up the police “virtual stakeouts” after
practice of planting GPS leaving trackers in copper
trackers on suspects’ vehi- wire, bicycles and laptops.
cles to monitor their move- In Long Island’s Nassau
ments, and it set certain County, 23-year-old Josh-
constitutional boundaries ua Golson-Orelus has been
on their use. It stopped charged with murder and
short of saying a warrant is armed robbery in the series
always required. of heists. His attorney de-
But that narrow ruling clined to comment about
didn’t specifically address the role of GPS.q
