[Infowarrior] - SCOTUS: GPS Tracking Requires Warrant

[Richard Forno]

Police Use of GPS Devices to Track Suspects’ Cars Limited by Supreme Court

By Greg Stohr - Jan 23, 2012

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2012-01-23/police-use-of-gps-devices-to-track-suspects-cars-limited-by-supreme-court.html

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police generally need a warrant before attaching a GPS device to track a criminal suspect’s car.

Ruling for the first time on the legal implications of global positioning systems, the justices today were unanimous in overturning the drug conviction of Antoine Jones, though divided in their reasoning. The decision comes as technology is giving police unprecedented power to peer into Americans’ day-to-day activities.

Jones, now 51, owned a nightclub in Washington, where prosecutors say he ran a narcotics trafficking organization. The GPS device, placed in the car while it was in a Maryland parking lot, was one facet of an investigation by local and federal authorities that also included visual surveillance and a wiretap on Jones’s mobile phone.

Investigators eventually were able to tie Jones to a suspected drug stash house. Jones was arrested and convicted in federal court of conspiracy to distribute cocaine. He was serving a life sentence.

The case is United States v. Jones, 10-1259.

To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Stohr in Washington at gstohr at bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steven Komarow at skomarow1 at bloomberg.net

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