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GPS tracking is rapidly spreading as a tool for businesses and governmental groups to follow their fleets’ movements, with a host of benefits. Fleet tracking can reduce costs by helping managers plan the best routes, manage wasteful practices like long idling times, and keep employees accountable to work while they are on the clock.

It can also increase safety, because someone responsible knows where each driver in the fleet is and can get help to them quickly if they run into trouble. Dormont, a borough of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, has a fleet tracking for its police force. Unfortunately, some questions are being raised about whether it has been used wisely.

With a GPS tracking unit on each of the five patrol cars in the Dormont police department’s fleet, each vehicle’s whereabouts can be monitored in real time. Satellites interact with computers to interpret signals from the devices and show where they are on the Dormont map. The main driving factor behind the decision to track the borough’s police cars was a desire to increase officer safety; an additional benefit is the ability to plan maintenance schedules based on information about mileage and idle time.

Five police sergeants, four desk officers, and the borough’s manager Gino Rizza have access to the GPS system’s monitoring site. Recently, Rizza was asked at a council meeting to account for a log of the hours he had spent watching the site. Councilwoman Joan Hodson presented a report that showed Rizza spent more than 40 hours logged onto the site in the month of April.

She said she felt the time was “excessive” and asked if he were spying on the police. Rizza responded that he often kept the site open on his computer but wasn’t watching it; he denied spying. Hodson said later that she could accept his explanation but still thought the time was excessive. Hodson and Rizza have not gotten along in the past, and she called for his resignation in March.

The issue may soon fade away for Dormont, but it is a reminder of the need for all authorities to be above-board and ethical in their use of information they have access to, including data gathered by GPS. Whether used in the private or in the public sector, GPS tracking should be governed by clear expectations about who has access to that information, what the purpose of the tracking system is, and what it’s uses should be limited to.

Article Written by Kadence Vyra