You have commented 338 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Home Front: WoT
NY high court GPS decision has handcuffed cops in WoT
2009-05-26
The Bronx bomb plot case offers chilling and timely proof that the state Court of Appeals was supremely wrongheaded in barring New York law enforcement from using GPS devices for surveillance without a warrant. Just days after the court's decision, the FBI and NYPD bagged the four alleged conspirators in an investigation that relied heavily on tracking them via GPS - as authorities must have the freedom to do.

U.S. courts permit this. The law has always been clear that cops may follow people on the streets because, on the streets, people have no expectation of privacy. Using GPS to aid surveillance has been accepted by courts as an extension of keeping an eye on people when they are out in public. But New York's highest court broke dangerous ground two weeks ago in deciding that GPS was such an effective, electronic tool that it required, not just regulation, but banning unless permitted by warrant.

Here's how that would play out under circumstances similar to those in the bomb plot. An informant tells police that he has met a man who says he hates both Jews and the U.S. He also says he wants to "do jihad." At that point, police have no probable cause to believe the man has committed a crime. They know only that he has been shooting off his mouth. Quite reasonably, the cops decide they need to track the man's movements. They want to check him out by following what has become the standard law enforcement practice of placing a GPS device on his car. But without probable cause no court will issue a warrant. At that point, the NYPD would be out of luck. The cops would have to rely on the FBI to do the job because keeping a possible terrorist under successful physical surveillance 24 hours a day is a logistical nightmare. Rule of thumb: Seven cars staffed with cops for every vehicle kept under surveillance, three shifts per day. And make sure they all keep their distance so as to avoid being made.

In the bomb plot probe, the FBI placed GPS in a vehicle or vehicles that agents provided to the informant. Over a period of months, the informant drove hither and yon with the alleged conspirators - from Newburgh to Brooklyn to buy a gun, up to Connecticut supposedly to pick up Stinger missiles and explosives, to Riverdale to plant what they believed were bombs. Reinforcing the law enforcement virtues of GPS, the reputed terrorists expressed worry about being followed on the trip to Connecticut and went to ground for a while. They did so even though they were being tracked from a long distance via GPS.

It is unclear whether the Court of Appeals would permit the NYPD to use GPS to track a suspect in a government-issued car rather than in the suspect's own vehicle, as happened here. But what is certain under the ruling is that the NYPD could not have used GPS if the alleged plotters had gotten around on their own. The bottom line is simple. No probable cause. No warrant. Extreme difficulty in surveillance. Maybe no case.
Posted by:ryuge

00:00