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More organizations are benefiting from the location pinpointing ability of GPS tracking devices. One of the more innovative uses has been implemented by a Texas county to keep kids from skipping school. Offenders must appear before the Justice of the Peace, where they are given a GPS tracking device that they must carry during a probationary period.

GPS Tracking & Truancy

The GPS tracking device monitors the location of the students at any given time, and enforcement personnel can check at any time to ensure that they are attending classes as they should be. While traditional methods such as mentoring, court orders, and jail time for repeat offenders have yielded spotty results, the new method has resulted in 95% of monitored students attending classes as they are supposed to.

GPS tracking has proved useful for other law enforcement purposes as well. Departments routinely use the devices to monitor paroled sex offenders and have also seen a measure of success in using GPS vehicle tracking to keep an eye on suspected drug traffickers and other criminal suspects. While controversy exists over whether or not the technology violates privacy, the court system has upheld the use of GPS tracking in general, although some states require a warrant for tracking suspects without their knowledge.

The benefit provided by GPS tracking to law enforcement offices includes the ability to monitor multiple suspects or parolees without the need for additional manpower. They can also assist police with finding stolen property including automobiles and construction equipment, two prime targets for theft. Already strained departments can put their resources to the best use possible instead of placing officers on numerous stakeouts and information gathering assignments. Proponents of the technological solution say that placing a GPS tracking device on a suspect’s car is no different from assigning an officer to follow that suspect, since the transmitter cannot give any information beyond what could be gathered with the naked eye.

As more GPS tracking uses surface, the courts will undoubtedly have to contend with the constitutional question of whether GPS surveillance equates with unreasonable search. For now, departments are singing the praises of the devices, since they save not only manpower, but also limited department funds.  More cases will undoubtedly be brought before state judicial systems as time progresses, but in the interim, the public can expect to see more innovative uses of the technology cropping up in law enforcement departments across the country.