Just days after a Wisconsin judge okay’ed warrantless GPS tracking by law enforcement in the state, the highest court for the state of New York said warrantless GPS tracking is a clear violation of the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment.
In the case People v. Weaver, a New York state police officer placed a GPS tracking device on the defendant’s car when it was placed on private property. The police then tracked the vehicle’s whereabouts for 65 days. Strangely the police didn’t seem to have any reason for placing the GPS device, called a Q-Ball, under the vehicle and didn’t get a warrant to do it. But the defendant was charged with two burglaries he committed while being tracked, one of which he was convicted.
The New York court recognized that warrantless GPS tracking is invasive not only by detecting our location, but also by revealing normally private information like political and religious associations. As the Electronic Frontier Foundation states, “GPS is not a mere enhancement of human sensory capacity, but a substitution for law enforcement that facilitates a new and incredibly invasive technological perception of the world.” You can read the whole 43-page judgment here.
Are you against warrantless GPS tracking? If so, why?
