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Police use GPS tracking routinely nowadays, and it’s been an incredible boost to their ability to solve crimes. They can find a stolen car, a bag of money taken from a bank, or other pinched valuables in a way that was never possible in earlier times. The debate now is whether police use of GPS tracking may, in some cases, be a violation of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The amendment protects the people against warrantless search and seizure, an important freedom to all Americans.

But does GPS tracking without a warrant constitute a violation of this right?

The debate is by no means about tracking stolen valuables. A few moments thought easily clarifies that you have the right to track what belongs to you. In reality, the police don’t do any of the tracking. You – or more specifically, the company providing your service – simply have an easy means of informing police of your asset’s whereabouts so that they can recover the stolen goods and hopefully also bring the thief to justice. What’s been called into question is whether the police can attach a tracking device without a warrant.
In April, the case of the United States v. Juan Cuevas-Perez came before the Seventh Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals. In brief, in 2008 Cuevas-Perez had been suspected of involvement in drug activity, and a Phoenix detective attached a GPS unit to his vehicle while it was parked in a public area and tracked him across several states for 60 hours. Cuevas-Perez is asking for the GPS evidence to be suppressed because the detective did not obtain a warrant.

The appeals court upheld the actions of the detective. The judges say a warrant is not necessary because the data obtained from a GPS unit could also be obtained by a police officer who follows a car in person. Dissenting judges argue that the much greater precision of information from a GPS unit opens the door for mass surveillance and is an invasion of privacy.
The debate is not simple and is likely to be lively over the coming years. Technology is constantly changing our world, and the questions of how new gadgets fit with timeless rights will always be changing too. Freedom leads to innovation, and innovation leads to new challenges to freedom. It’s all part of being American.

Article Written by Kadence Vyra