15 Responses to “GPS Tracking Gets Police Detective Fired”

1. Anonymous says:

   December 28, 2008 at 1:11 am

   Yes, all of our police cars are equipped with hard-wire devices. You can use portable ones too, but I think you will find the battery life is not always sufficient for the job. I personally believe that hard-wire gps devices work the best. You can get a good one for about $395.
2. Anonymous says:

   December 27, 2008 at 11:48 am

   Do you guys use a hard-wire unit or a portable one?
3. Anonymous says:

   December 26, 2008 at 9:34 pm

   No, the packsets won’t do the job. We use real separate tracking devices that are installed in the vehicles. We use them mostly for verification. It seems to keep the citizen complaints down too.
4. Richard says:

   December 26, 2008 at 12:44 pm

   Our department has gps in the 1600 mhz packsets, but it’s worthless. We can’t get the tracking information we need from them.
5. Tom says:

   December 25, 2008 at 11:03 pm

   No, I disagree. That may have been the case years ago, but I think police departments are now seeing the benefit of technology like this and more will start using it.
6. Anonymous says:

   December 25, 2008 at 10:56 pm

   The only time a department will usually agree to track police vehicles is when something is brought to light.
7. Anonymous says:

   December 25, 2008 at 3:37 pm

   Generally, police departments will not enforce all police vehicles being tracking. I worked for a PD that had a “look the other way” policy when someone was doing something wrong. The only exception to that unofficial policy was if the officer was doing something that could be a liability to the department. It can be tough to get a job with a good PD, but once you’re in you’re in and everyone sticks together for the most part. You watch my back and I will watch yours philosophy.
8. Tom says:

   December 25, 2008 at 3:20 pm

   I think retiring was the best decision they could have made. It sounds like there was enough evidence against the detectives for the department to have strong case. GPS is accurate. It’s about as good of evidence as having tape or video. I am in favor of what this department did. Using this technology can be a proactive approach to reducing department liabilities.
9. topcop says:

   December 24, 2008 at 10:18 pm

   Three retired? Sure! It was more like retire or get fired. They should have stood up to the department and forced them to fire them. Then, the officers may have had a case.
10. Bill says:

    December 24, 2008 at 2:16 pm

    I wish more police departments would deploy gps tracking on police vehicles. I doubt it will happen though. From what I have seen, the upper ranks in PD’s are reluctant to be tracked. In a sense I do understand how they feel because they always have the public eye on them. But, this kind of stuff shouldn’t happen. It really hurts the trust factor with public officials.
11. C8264 says:

    December 24, 2008 at 8:39 am

    You can’t just fire them on the spot. Police supervisors have to follow a standard protocol through internal affairs. This is a standard procedure.
12. Anonymous says:

    December 24, 2008 at 8:10 am

    What a waste of tax-payer dollars. All 4 detectives should have been fired on the spot.
13. C8264 says:

    December 24, 2008 at 8:04 am

    This is usually more common in the larger cities where there is less supervision and more freedom. However, I would say it happens less in law enforcement that it does in any other career.
14. Anonymous says:

    December 23, 2008 at 11:42 pm

    Yes, that’s a very good question raised by Mr. Foster. It would seem that the officers did not know they were being tracked. I have a great deal of respect for police, but I bet this happens more often than we realize.
15. Raymond E. Foster says:

    December 23, 2008 at 6:40 pm

    It would be interesting to know how they employed the technology. Was the GPS device regularly installed on the a police vehicle, or was some portable device attached to the cars? Besides the interesting technology issues, one can help wonder about the underlying management and leadership issues – people feel so comfortable they can do whatever they want?