Warrantless GPS Monitoring in WI By Police Upheld
Just in case you thought Big Brother wasn’t paying close enough attention to you already, check this out. Wisconsin’s 4th District Court of Appeals ruled that warrantless GPS monitoring of your vehicle is okay and doesn’t violate any Constitutional protections.
According to the Chicago Tribune, the Appeals court itself was troubled by its own finding and encouraged lawmakers to regulate individual’s and the police’s use of this finding to prevent abuse.
The case that came before the Appeals court involved a man whose vehicle was tracked for 8 months by police with a warrant who were investigating claims that the man, Michael Sveum, was stalking a woman. Sveum was later convicted of stalking using evidence downloaded from the GPS system and sentenced to serve a term in prison.
Sveum’s attorney argued that the tracking violated his protection against unreasonable searches and seizures; the court disagreed. Because the GPS monitoring only showed data that could also be compiled from simple surveillance, the court ruled the police were not out of line.
Cases like this are particularly troubling to many people, attorneys and regular citizens alike, because not only does it give police (and even individuals) broad permission to track you, it also seems to follow the law. Being legally sound, however, doesn’t always equate to being ethical.
The whole argument in this case centers on whether the GPS monitoring gives police information that would otherwise only be available from following people into private places not visible to the public. The ACLU says yes, that when a vehicle enters the garage, for instance, it crosses that threshold and should require a warrant.
The Appeals court and the police claim that although the GPS unit can follow people into private property not visible to the public, it doesn’t record any information other than location and location can be determined from public view, watching the vehicle enter the garage for example.
This is a very interesting case and one that you can bet we haven’t heard the end of. As it stands, lawmakers will need to give careful consideration to regulating just how this privilege is to be used or risk seeing some real abuses in the not too distant future.
