Do the police need a warrant to track your car with GPS?

[Theophylact]

A Washington State court says "Yes;" Barton Aronson at FindLaw says they're wrong.

An interesting question.

[e980238]

I think they should have a warrent.

[luddite]

Keep buying from walmart and they won't need gps; the rfids will do all the work.

[e980238]

what are rfids?

[elroy]

Radio frequency ID tags
I think it is: very small radio transmitters that can be installed into just about anything. Intel is going to build them right into their cpu's, completely changing wireless communications. Or maybe not.

[John Prophet]

find a good "conspiracy" website and you can read all about this stuff..along with the govt spraying chems in the air and JFK being behind the 911 stuff etc.

JP

[VHockey86]

Kinda sounds like the novel Brave New World

[hYpO]

scary

[woodbutcher]

It's the whole 1984 'Big Brother' theory 20 years late.

WB

[M_Six]

I can see the author's point, but I wonder what would have happened if instead of finding the girl's body, they had traced the father's movements to some other crime for which he was not already a suspect. Could they then use that evidence against him? In this case, he was already a suspect, so surveillance was warranted.

I understand that this is not the same as a recording device because the recording device would allow the police to do something they normally would not have been able to do. So the traditional "wiretap" rules don't apply. There was no invasion of privacy. Still, the idea that the police can hide devices of any kind in your car bothers me. That's something that is open to abuse.

Interesting topic for debate. Nice find, Theo.


EDIT: Wow. I just noticed this thread is almost a month old. Must have been dozing the first time it came around.