Email

A Supreme Court decision regarding the legality of GPS tracking cannot come soon enough. Yet another controversial decision was made by a district judge in Maryland, when federal authorities were denied a warrant to locate a suspect using his cell phone’s GPS data. Because there have been no laws passed dictating proper use of GPS technology, the decisions have been left to individual courts. It’s not surprising that contradictory rulings have been made across the United States. Fortunately, the Supreme Court will rule on the legality of GPS tracking in their next term.

The latest case brought to Maryland’s district court involved a warrant request to use a suspect’s cell phone information to locate and bring him in to custody. The police had only the suspect’s phone number as a usable lead. Coincidentally, the phone number belonged to a phone equipped with GPS, and naturally, the authorities wanted the phone company to release the GPS data in order to track the suspect. However, U.S. District Judge Susan K. Gauvey denied the warrant request.

In order to get a warrant in Maryland, proof is needed that there is “a fair probability that contraband or evidence of a crime will be found in a particular place.” In this case, the warrant was requested “not to collect evidence of a crime, but solely to locate a charged defendant.” Although it is understandable that using GPS to track suspects “would appear reasonable, even commendable and efficient” to police, “this use of location data by law enforcement would appear chillingly invasive and unnecessary in the apprehension of defendants,” Judge Gauvey concluded.

The judge stresses that the court is not trying to get in the way of police’s apprehension of criminals, “but rather places them within the Constitutional and statutory framework which balances citizen’s rights of privacy against government’s protection of society. . . out of the government’s casual reach.” A system of checks and balances was established for a reason. Although it’s not perfect, Judge Gauvey’s decision plays an important role in protecting citizen’s rights from the increasing powers of government.

Article Written by Marisa O’Connor