Posted on 01/21/2005 11:01:49 AM PST by CrawDaddyCA
Cops without a warrant can secretly attach Global Positioning System devices to a suspect's vehicle, according to a federal judge - who said using the gadgets is virtually the same thing as following a car along a road.
The decision handed down by U.S. Judge David Hurd in upstate Utica last week could give law enforcement officials another high-tech weapon to catch criminals, but is troubling to privacy advocates.
Hurd ruled that Robert (Bugsy) Moran, a Hells Angel member and defense attorney accused of conspiring to distribute methamphetamine, had "no expectation of privacy in the whereabouts of his vehicle on a public roadway."
"Law enforcement personnel could have conducted a visual surveillance of the vehicle as it traveled on the public highways," Hurd wrote.
Assistant U.S. Attorney David Grable, who is prosecuting Moran, strongly backed the ruling.
"Your movements on a highway aren't private," he said. "You don't have a reasonable expectation of privacy, which is a Fourth Amendment test."
But civil liberties advocates said the decision opens the door to increased government surveillance.
Miniature GPS receivers are now available for about $1,000 and can be affixed to the undercarriage of vehicles in minutes.
Hurd's ruling is only binding in his upstate courtroom, said law Prof. Barry Kamins, but other judges will likely consult it.
"It's kinda scary," said Christopher Dunn, associate legal director of the New York City Liberties Union. "If this ruling applied to New York City, the NYPD would be free to go out and attach these devices to cars and track people without any showing of wrongdoing."
In the Laci Peterson murder case, California detectives got court permission to hide the devices on three of Scott Peterson's vehicles. They showed Peterson visited a marina they had searched several times.
Not all judges agree with the most recent federal ruling.
Last year, Nassau County Court Judge Joseph Calabrese said attaching a GPS device to a car amounted to a search and seizure. "At this time, more than ever, individuals must be given the constitutional protections necessary to their continued unfettered freedom from a 'big brother' society," he wrote.
Libertine indeed. Shut the hell up you Socialist.
This is great news.
See post 116 and ask yourself; if someone in my family was kidnapped and there was a suspect, would I want to know where they have been in the last, say, 24 hours?
I hope you remember that as they are installing the "safety" camera in your living room. After all, if you have nothing to hide....
That, and anyone trying to kidnap members of my family had better be much better armed. We take PERSONAL RESPONSIBILTY for our own safety.
Got any other straw men you wanna through my way? If so, don't. I've got some work I need to get done this afternoon and am disinclined to play along.
At this point in my life, if I'm being followed, my pursuers might get bored to death, albeit after bits of terror following me on a mountain road.
It's a bit frightening to see the number of posters here who willfully have a tongue covered in boot polish.
I wonder if they're just simply misguided, or paid shills?
Ya got me there, pal... I'd be a liar if I didn't donate to the RNC. But how and about what, those elude me. Please bring your superior intellect to bear and tell me. Also explain how suggesting you and your buddy get a clue relates to marching in lockstep with the RNC elitists and being just another Koolaid drinker. Then you could respond to my actual POST, perhaps... I'll be sure to hold my breath until you do.
(is this an example of your deep thinking???)
Do you recognize this comment ?
Put the alchohol down and honor your word.
Since I wrote those words, I supposeI should recognize them... However, a suggestion that you beg money so you can buy a clue does NOT translate into either a desire to help you directly any further than the information I have provided OR a desire to become a Pubbie Koolaid drinker... so I guess that this would make me out to be a liar in your lexicon. Too bad, since I never offered to send ANYONE any money...
I'm sorry, I didn't realize how busy you were. But just remember, cops are merely the vehicles in which the law travels. Last time I checked, police officers didn't get to sign off on legislation or case laws. Cops also have rights when it comes to enforcing the laws so don't blame the messengers for enforcing measures within their powers. Powers given to them by the courts.
However, I do not fear registration leads to confiscation.
Perhaps you should. Registration of firearms has led to confiscation in many instances, and not all of them abroad. In recent years registration lists have been used to confiscate guns in Cleveland and in California, that I am aware of. There are probably other cases as well.
And, of course, there are numerous foreign examples.
Registration also led to confiscation of rifles brought back by WW II veterens to New York City.
In 1928, the Germans passed a law requiring registration and licensing. When Hitler got in power in 1933, the lists were available.
Both of the jokers you're arguing with have posted in support of gun control within the last few weeks. They're hopeless.
Most people rent their houses from the government. (It's called "property taxes." As another sage has pointed out, these funds are primarily used for the indoctrination of children living in one's vicinity.)
These privacy advocates are always troubled. Who are they? Can we find out more about them? Need to track them and see if they are dangerous, you know they wouldn't be troubled if they had nothing to hide. What are they hiding?
Excellent idea. Tracking the cops may illegal under some species of obstruction of justice, but tracking pols should be fine.
(As long as you do not threaten them...I think stalkers get busted for GPS tracking because they use it to stalk/harass their victims)
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