Police turning to GPS to track cars more than ever

t’s no secret that the police have been using GPS to track cars for some time now, often without a warrant or court order and, as The Washington Post now reports, it looks like the practice is only getting more and more commonplace. That is mostly due to the fact that courts usually side with the police in the resulting cases that arise out of the use of GPS trackers, with them agreeing with the argument that it is essentially no different than having an officer physically track a car themselves. They also cite a 1983 Supreme Court case that allowed the use of “beepers” that relay a car’s location to police. Of course, others, like attorney Chris Leibig, have an entirely different opinion, saying that, “tracking a person everywhere they go and keeping a computer record of it for days and days without that person knowing is a completely different type of intrusion.” Given that at least some state courts, like Washington state, side with that position and require a warrant for GPS trackers to be used, it would seem likely that this matter could eventually wind up being decided in the Supreme Court as well.