Over in this thread. The subject came up about GPS tracking of people’s vehicles without a warrant. I was actually going to start this thread a few days ago, as I recently saw a tv news story about something similar. I’m searching for an online copy of the story, but haven’t been able to find it.
The general jist of the story was that police had affixed a GPS tracker on the vehicle of a man that they suspected of being a serial rapist. Based upon his driving habits I guess, they were able to get a warrant to search his house. Inside they found a stash of child pornography. So the man was convicted of possessing child pornography, but as far as I could tell from the story, they found nothing to support the theory that he was a rapist.
The underlying idea of allowing police to place these tracking devices is that you have no expectation of privacy while out driving around, and that since no harm comes to the vehicle, it’s not tampering.
Now while I’m not a rapist, something about this idea just creeps me out. The idea that the police can place these devices on anyone’s car and track them for no reason at all just seems a bit Orwellian to me. So I brought it here to debate. What do other dopers think about this? Are you fine with the idea that police can monitor your movements in your own car anytime they want? Is it just a small step from this to issuing speeding tickets based off of devices placed randomly? What about if they could place one on your person without you knowing while you were in public?
Thoughts? Discussion?
I will keep looking for the article about the suspected rapist.
*Note this story seems to indicate that any private individual can use these as well.