In this thread, "Ask the Private Investigator" it is represented by a private investigator that it is completely legal to affix bugs to the cars of private citizens without a warrant or permission of any kind in order to track their movements, so long as you affix and remove the bug in a public parking lot.
I have to admit I find this degree of latitude stunning considering that you (I believe) normally have to get a warrant to wiretap a citizen’s telephone conversations, and I fail to see the real distinction between “bugging” someone’s car movements and bugging a telephone conversation.
Can some doper lawyer explain to me in laymans language why it is legal for a PI (or anyone) to do this without a warrant?
I disagree with the statement. I work full time as a business security consultant and hold a P.I. license in 5 states (though the work I do is NOT the average P.I. work, I hold the licenses due to state regulations). In fact, though licensed as one, I don’t consider myself a P.I. at all. I’ve never done 98% of what most P.i.'s do.
Anyway…
We once had a client who had a problem with an employee over billing on work hours. Our solution was to place a tracking device on the vehicle used to determine why this employee was taking 12 hours to do an 8 hour vending route. Then I found out that he was using his own vehicle and not a vehicle owned by my clients company. The legal department of our firm told me it was not legal to place a tracking device on the vehicle without the owner/oporators consent. Had he been using the vehicle of my clients, it would have been okay.
As for court orders and warrants, I don’t know of any private dicks who get these. I work part-time as a police officer and it’s hard enough then to get a judge to sign a warrant. Don’t know any judge who would give one to a private eye.
Very quickly I found that in the state of Texas it is a Class A misdemeanor for a PI to place a tracking device on a vehicle with out permission…see Texas Penal Code, Title IV, §16.06 http://www.texasinvestigations.com/laws/tpc_4_16.htm#16.06
I would point out, however, that Mr. Lissa did not advocate the use of a tracking device by a PI. He stated he used it while he was working for the state in prison criminal investigations. The TX law cited above does make exceptions for law enforcement usage.
Now, is the placement of a tracking device by law enforcement w/o a warrant an invasion of privacy or an illegal search & seizure? According to the Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit the answer is no.
In US v. Eberle, 1999, Forest Service law enforcement placed a GPS and another tracking device on the defendant’s vehicle, while it was parked in his driveway, after having reasonable cause to believe the owner was growing marijuana on park land. http://cl.bna.com/cl/19990818/9830145.htm
can’t see the similarity of tapping private phone conversations and simply amploying a legal device to track movement of an object. Though I assume it would apply not only to parking lots, but any public area including the curb outside a suspects home (i.e. not in his driveway or garage)
Many jurisdictions have laws against tampering with vehicles. These have been used to prosecute everything from vandalism to windshield-wiper flyer advertising. I don’t see how it could be much of a stretch to include the sort of activity you describe.
And remember, folks, a PI is not an agent of any governmental organization, so the 4th Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures doesn’t apply. A PI could not, AFAIK, obtain a search warrant in any jurisdiction in the U.S. Only the police (local, state, or Federal) can be “warranted” to carry out a search.
So, if it’s illegal for a PI to put a tracking device on your car, it would have to be illegal because of some statute that makes it illegal - the Constitution is completely irrelevant. Tapping of someone’s telephone by a private party (i.e., not the police) is illegal not because of the Constitution, but because various statutes make it a crime to tap someone’s phone.
CAN and MAY are two words that are usually blown right past.
Someone saying they do something on a message board is not fact maker.
Can, may, should, get caught, how big and mean are you, will the police put any effort into investigation, would 12 men good and true
agree?
12 women on a jury about how the cheating husband was caught?
The World is Round,
It is Not Fair,
It is Just Damn Round !!!
Last year a guy was convicted in Wisconsin for putting a GPS unit on his ex-girlfriends car and using it to track her movements!
I’m searching now for the story!
I can’t believe I forgot about that!
[url="http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/pseidler1.html"Smoking gun info here on that case but none of the stalking and harrassment charges against the man seem directly related to illegal use of the GPS device he used to track her.
In general, a warrant is not required for the police to attach a tracking device to a car. It is not a “search” within the meaning of the 4th amendment. They may need a warrant to excuse the violation of some statute, but it isn’t about the 4th amendment.
Well, according to this story in Virginia at least, attaching the devices doesn’t seem to be illegal at all. Even a regular person, without a PI license. YMMV of course.
Also, I started a thread about this over in GD to talk about this issue.
