Rocky Mountain Tracking

By Greg Bartlett

There are six people living in my house, and all of them are drivers. That means that sometimes someone will take a car and no one else knows where it is because the driver forgot to communicate where he or she was going.

One time a few of us ended up at the same store in different cars. My dad decided to play a joke on my brother and moved his car a few spots down. But what if that hadn’t been a joke? What if someone had really stolen the vehicle? And what if one of the times we think one of us took one of our cars, someone actually stole it?

It’s helpful to know where your vehicle is at all times. In fact, it’s not just helpful, it’s necessary. You need to know who is driving your car and where it is being driven. And you need to be able to find it if the wrong person takes it, so you can notify police and they can track your car down and get it returned to you. If it’s a family member, you may not want to report an auto theft, but if someone stole your car, you need to report it as quickly as possible. Many people are turning to GPS vehicle tracking to ensure that they will know where their vehicle is.

One GPS vehicle tracking system in the United Kingdom has recovered over 400 million pounds’ worth of vehicles, including cars, motorcycles, motorhomes, and commercial vehicles. By sending police information about where the vehicles are located, it has resulted in over 1,800 arrests and has helped many owners recover their vehicles.

In Texas, a man who stole a vehicle last week and got involved in a high-speed pursuit was tracked by police because of a GPS vehicle tracking system inside the car. Police were able to apprehend the suspect following a chase that reached 120 miles per hour after the GPS system told them where to look for the vehicle.

Knowing where your car is at all times is a possibility. Whether you need to know because other household members might be using it to go shopping while you need to drive to work or because you’re concerned that it might have been stolen, using GPS vehicle tracking can provide you with the answers you need. You don’t have to guess who has your vehicle and where it is. You can know.

By Greg Bartlett

Drug smuggling is a serious problem for the United States. Each year over a million pounds of marijuana and thousands of pounds of heroin and cocaine are seized by border patrol agents in attempted smuggling operations. Millions more pounds of illegal drugs make it through undetected. Police investigations are difficult since following suspects requires significant manpower, long hours, and large investments in fuel and payroll. One way departments can increase effectiveness while simultaneously decreasing cost is to use a GPS tracking device attached to a suspect’s car as part of their investigation.

A GPS tracking device will transmit a signal to a remote receiver, recording the location of the suspect’s vehicle at any given point in time. Police can view information such as speed, direction of travel, stops made and duration of each stop as well as current location of the vehicle. In this way, they can check suspicious activity and verify whether a suspect has traveled across state lines, gone out of the country, or made contact with a known drug trafficker.

Rising fuel costs and inflation have put a squeeze on many businesses and police departments are no exception. Utilizing a GPS tracking device is like having an officer visually tail a suspect without the associated expense of overtime pay and fuel for the officer’s vehicle as well as freeing up that officer to meet more pressing needs. Although concern has been expressed in some quarters that using GPS tracking to monitor criminal movements is an invasion of privacy, a recent court ruling found that this is not the case. Placing a GPS device on a suspect’s car is no different than having an officer follow that suspect since the GPS can record only the location of the vehicle, information that would be observable in the public sphere.

As drug trafficking becomes more and more profitable, police investigators need to make use of all available means of monitoring suspects and stopping illegal activity as quickly as possible. A GPS tracking device provides an extra set of eyes for only the cost of the device, which saves innumerable dollars and man hours over time. It also makes it possible to follow a suspect across state lines and even out of the country, which provides valuable and otherwise difficult to obtain information for the investigation. With GPS tracking, departments will quickly see immense return on a wise investment.

By Greg Bartlett

Moving is always a big event. There’s so much to remember—mail to be forwarded, address changes to be made, friends to contact and utilities to be turned off, not to mention packing up every last belonging so it fits in the moving truck. All these things are compounded when you’re moving overseas or out of the country. Most people find it necessary to ship their belongings in a container while they fly to their destination. Container shipping can cause much trepidation, since containers have been known to fall off the boat (literally) or be stolen before reaching their final destination. A GPS tracking device placed inside the container can give you peace of mind as you prepare for the big transition.

The GPS tracking device works by emitting a signal that is picked up by your computer or other receiving device. It records the transmitter’s location at any given point in time and allows you to keep an eye on the item carrying the transmitter. You can view your container’s location at any point in time or print off a report of its movement over the course of the trip. Some devices have the ability to record direction and speed of travel as well.

Most people have probably had the experience of flying to a destination only to find out upon arrival that their baggage didn’t make the trip. It was lost or rerouted somewhere along the way, and now a day or two must be spent without luggage while waiting for the airline to correct the problem. Imagine what your feelings would be if this happened with your shipping container. What if every earthly possession you have was lost and you were stranded in another country with only the things you brought with you on the plane? A GPS tracking device can ensure that you aren’t left in limbo any longer than necessary by giving you the knowledge you need to quickly locate your belongings at any time.

With a GPS tracking device, moving doesn’t have to be the headache that it would be otherwise. You’ll be free to focus on the important things, like making sure your kids aren’t lost, getting utilities in the new home turned on and planning where to put your furniture rather than worrying about whether your container made it safely to its destination. It’s an investment for peace of mind that you’ll be glad you made.