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By Chris O’Toole

“Don’t it always seem to go, but you don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone…”- Joni Mitchell

True words, Joni. It’s easy to imagine a world with GPS in 2009 because of its booming popularity in the years past. That being said, it is just as easy for a person to take the many marvelous aspects of GPS tracking for granted. When the car was created, it was a mind-boggling piece of machinery. Now, it is just a common place occurrence in our society. When the internet shined its magnificent light on the world for the first time, many believed that this confounding technology was too advanced for its time. No longer does the average human gape at the sight of a Google home page (although the answer to almost any query in the universe lays milliseconds beyond your fingertips). I believe that there would be a new found appreciation for the internet if someone pulled the I.V. (Internet-venous) from America’s lifeblood. So, let’s gain a new appreciation for GPS tracking systems.

“911 emergency response.”

“My car! My car was stolen at gunpoint!”

“Where was your car stolen?”

“I don’t know… I’m not from here. I think 83rd and Belmont?”

“OK, in what direction did the suspect drive your car?”

“East? No, probably north. All I see is cities and buildings! Please! My kid was in the car!”

“Stay on the line. Make and model of the car?”

“Red 1998 Pathfinder.”

“License plate?”

“9…2…1…K…W… I don’t remember. Who knows their license plate?!”

“OK, ma’am. An officer will assist you shortly. We’ll do the best we can but there may not be enough evidence.”

Well, with GPS, the officer would have known that the car came to a stop at 44th and Bradley, not 83rd and Belmont (which happened to be on the other side of town). He also would have known that the car was heading north. The license plate did not start with a 9 or a 2 and so visual evidence would not have been enough to retrieve the car. With all of this misinformation combined, the officer is already at least 45 minutes to an hour behind the thief. What difference could GPS make in this situation? It could save $85,000 and also, more importantly, the life of a very confused 4 year old.

The truth is that people tend to forget about GPS tracking systems until they actually need it. That’s OK. No hard feelings. In the interest of everyone’s safety, just make sure it’s there for you when you finally realize its necessity.