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A Washington, DC GPS tracking court decision has determined that using GPS to track drug suspects without warrant violates the fourth amendment of the United States Constitution. The Washington, DC Court of Appeals determined that “a reasonable person does not expect anyone to monitor and retain a record of every time he drives his car, including his origin, route, destination and each place he stopped and how long you stay there.”

This decision has ramifications for the GPS industry as well as law enforcement agencies. With this decision, law enforcement agencies cannot simply drop a GPS tracking device under any car that they wish if they have suspicions about that car. In addition, any evidence from GPS tracking devices that has not been obtained using a court warrant will be invalid.

Prior to this decision, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals had determined that the DEA was allowed to attach GPS devices to vehicles. This Federal Court of Appeals decision reverses that case.

Is this case moves beyond the Washington, DC federal court of appeals, then the next place it will stop will be the US Supreme Court. A Supreme Court ruling on the use of GPS evidence will have huge repercussions for the GPS industry, individual citizens, and law enforcement agencies, as such a decision would determine the validity of these devices in the court of law.

Article Written by Greg Minton