Police can legally attach GPS to your car without a warrant.

[SpaceGhost]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/08/27/oregon.gps.surveillance/index.html?hpt=T1

 

(CNN) -- Law enforcement officers may secretly place a GPS device on a person's car without seeking a warrant from a judge, according to a recent federal appeals court ruling in California.

Drug Enforcement Administration agents in Oregon in 2007 surreptitiously attached a GPS to the silver Jeep owned by Juan Pineda-Moreno, whom they suspected of growing marijuana, according to court papers.

When Pineda-Moreno was arrested and charged, one piece of evidence was the GPS data, including the longitude and latitude of where the Jeep was driven, and how long it stayed. Prosecutors asserted the Jeep had been driven several times to remote rural locations where agents discovered marijuana being grown, court documents show.

Pineda-Moreno eventually pleaded guilty to conspiracy to grow marijuana, and is serving a 51-month sentence, according to his lawyer.

But he appealed on the grounds that sneaking onto a person's driveway and secretly tracking their car violates a person's reasonable expectation of privacy.

"They went onto the property several times in the middle of the night without his knowledge and without his permission," said his lawyer, Harrison Latto.

The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the appeal twice -- in January of this year by a three-judge panel, and then again by the full court earlier this month. The judges who affirmed Pineda-Moreno's conviction did so without comment.

Latto says the Ninth Circuit decision means law enforcement can place trackers on cars, without seeking a court's permission, in the nine western states the California-based circuit covers.

The ruling likely won't be the end of the matter. A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., arrived at a different conclusion in similar case, saying officers who attached a GPS to the car of a suspected drug dealer should have sought a warrant.

Experts say the issue could eventually reach the U.S. Supreme Court.

One of the dissenting judges in Pineda-Moreno's case, Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, said the defendant's driveway was private and that the decision would allow police to use tactics he called "creepy" and "underhanded."

"The vast majority of the 60 million people living in the Ninth Circuit will see their privacy materially diminished by the panel's ruling," Kozinksi wrote in his dissent.

"I think it is Orwellian," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which advocates for privacy rights.

"If the courts allow the police to gather up this information without a warrant," he said, "the police could place a tracking device on any individual's car -- without having to ever justify the reason they did that."

But supporters of the decision see the GPS trackers as a law enforcement tool that is no more intrusive than other means of surveillance, such as visually following a person, that do not require a court's approval.

"You left place A, at this time, you went to place B, you took this street -- that information can be gleaned in a variety of ways," said David Rivkin, a former Justice Department attorney. "It can be old surveillance, by tailing you unbeknownst to you; it could be a GPS."

He says that a person cannot automatically expect privacy just because something is on private property.

"You have to take measures -- to build a fence, to put the car in the garage" or post a no-trespassing sign, he said. "If you don't do that, you're not going to get the privacy."

[cinergi]

I don't like that at all.

 

Thanks for the heads up.

 

Facebooked.

[ansonivan]

Seems fine to me, if you have nothing to hide... what's the problem?

 

/shit stir.

[John Bruh]

Seems fine to me, if you have nothing to hide... what's the problem?

 

/shit stir.

 

because it infringes your fucking rights.

 

With people like you, the government will soon tell you where to live, what to do and you will think its "okay" because, hey they're the government their not corrupt or liars.

 

 

I am totally against this, and have nothing to hide. It's bullshit

 

 

 

Oh and they should leagalize weed already.

[Snowflake]

I think as a people we need to be more concerned about black on black crime.

[ansonivan]

The government will soon leagalize weed.

 

 

 

Woohoo!!!

[unfunnyryan]

As long as this is limited to the higher agencies (DEA, CIA, FBI) I don't have a HUGE problem with this, since they are usually only going after top-tier criminals.

[Fubar231]

Oh and they should leagalize weed already.

 

Woohoo!!!

 

 

:thumbup:

[Scotty2Hotty]

Good luck with them tracking your vehicle without using something the size of a hockey puck. I'll show you a pick of a GPS puck, it's pretty damn noticable. If they're using .gov GPS sats, they'll need to track atleast 3 to get a coordinate worth a damn. I wouldn't be too worried about this unless you're on the FBI, CIA, NSA watch list.

[FST94TSI]

Bullshit

[Skinner]

Seems fine to me, if you have nothing to hide... what's the problem?

 

/shit stir.

 

OK how about we let the police come in your house look through all your stuff, you will be fine if you have nothing to hide right?

[Forrest Gump 9]

Next, they just gonna mail you the speeding ticket. Oh wait, did they?

[ansonivan]

 

/shit stir.

 

See above, makes joke I did.

[TTQ B4U]

probably be cheaper to just follow my smartphone.

[Skinner]

probably be cheaper to just follow my smartphone.

 

that would require a warrant to you provider first.

[FST94TSI]

Just watched this story on the news too. This is absolutely rediculous. Do you suppose it would be o.k. for a civilian to place a tracker on a police vehicle so we dont have to worry about where they are hiding? Hmmmmm

[NismoTuned]

thats crazy. i do not have anything to hide and thats still bs. i like the idea of tracking cop cars tho..

[Doug1647545489]

I'm all for this... with a fucking warrant.

[V8 Beast]

Is it legal for me to put a gps tracker in my shit so that I can track it through the sewer system or am I violating some kind of right of poopage?

[Buckeye1647545503]

Micheal Westin does it all the time...

[I Eat Rice]

Oh and they should leagalize weed already.

This will happen very soon and I cant wait for when they do. This Gps tracking I do not like at all. But most cars are equiped with a black box that stores what your car is doing for 5 or 10 seconds. This is used in legal matters and what not so really they there has been stuff keeping track of our every moves in cars anyways.

[V8 Beast]

Who has on star?

[spankis]

I know of at least one guy from I believe Upper Arlington where police suspected he was taking his mom's car and burglarizing houses with it while she was at work. He would drop her off and pick her up every day. They questioned him but couldn't pin anything on him, so they put a gps on his car and let him do his thing for a few weeks. When enough reports of burglary were reported at the same coordinates of the car they arrested him. Seems okey dokey to me, but clearly there is the possibility of abuse here.

 

The naive part of me would like to say "hey don't steal shit" and you're in the clear, but there is obviously more to it than that....

[Avenger1647545502]

that would require a warrant to you provider first.

 

Incorrect. All the NSA, CIA, DEA, ATF or Homeland Security are required to do is give the carrier a "National Security Letter" saying that the carrier is required to assist in tracking or tapping that phone. Currently, all of the major carriers are complying with these letters while waiting for a court to rule on the legality of the issue. I think Verizon has challenged these letters in the past, and has a court case ongoing, but has essentially rolled over now.

 

Now a local or state organization is going to have a harder time getting into your phone...but judges maintain a stack of pre-signed warrants all ready for an agency to call and ask for.

[HotCarl]

" attached a GPS to the silver Jeep owned by Juan Pineda-Moreno, whom they suspected of growing marijuana, according to court papers."

 

Blame these people????????????????????????????????????????????

 

Keyword here john, suspected. If law enforcement had any hard evidence they would've gotten the warrant they needed to enter the private property and place the GPS device.

 

Im not mad that they're going after a drug dealer, Im mad they didnt play by the rules that are already geared in their favor when considering its narcotics work. Just lazy police work. Get the evidence, get the warrant, arrest the bad guy. Simple.

 

And for all the naive ones who say "who cares as long as its DEA/FBI/DOD doing the work we know their going after the real bad guys", are you fucking kidding me? Its violating the civil rights of a criminal, then its violating the civil rights of the guys they "think" could be bad.

 

note: john's quote was taken from the other thread that was closed, not this thread.