Police and retailers are using GPS tracking devices to help solve multiple crimes. GPS trackers are small, satellite-connected devices which can lead police to wherever suspects have taken them. Not only are trackers being hidden in stacks of money like dye packs were in the past, but they have been placed in bottles of often stolen drugs. If a thief attempts steal the drug from a pharmacy, the thief is handed one of the “bait bottles” which is kept behind the counter of the pharmacy. The Associated Press reports that according to the maker of OxyContin, their “bait bottles” have been used in 33 states to help police make approximately 160 arrests. A GPS device was even attached to a skimmer, a gadget which was placed on a gas pump to steal credit card numbers. When the suspect retrieved the skimmer, the police caught the suspect. Anything that is regularly stolen can now contain a tracker. The Associated Press also reports arrests by police after “virtual stakeouts” with trackers left in copper wire, bicycles and laptops.
Tracker arrests occur in more than just property crimes. In Long Island, New York, a tracker in stolen money helped police catch a suspect in multiple bank robberies who eluded them for months. The bank robber was charged with murder based on the killing of a clerk in one of the robberies.
While the United States Supreme Court heard a case in 2012 concerning the police placing a tracker on suspects’ vehicles, the ruling is considered narrow. The decision does not address police leaving trackers in bait items, how long police can track or how the information obtained from tracking can be used in prosecution.
For civil libertarians in general, the concern seems not to be so much about the use of trackers but about the use of trackers without warrants or for extended periods of time. For instance, if the police are interested in Suspect X for a certain crime and utilize a tracker related to that crime, how long can they track Suspect X? Can the police continue to track Suspect X after that crime is over? What about innocent people who unsuspectingly acquire something with a tracker through no fault of their own?
The microscope under which society finds itself grows stronger as technology advances. When it comes to trackers, society may have to start making hard choices about safety vs. liberty.