Section 6.16 Global Positioning System Tracking Devices

• Library: DWI 2014

The United States Supreme Court recently held that attaching a GPS (global positioning system) monitoring device to an individual’s vehicle and monitoring the movements of the vehicle without a warrant was a search for Fourth Amendment purposes. United States v. Jones, 132 S. Ct. 945 (2012). In Jones,governmental agents attached a GPS monitoring device to the undercarriage of a suspect’s vehicle for the purpose of monitoring the movements of the vehicle. It should be noted that the government sought and obtained a search warrant, but the warrant expired before the governmental action in this case. Id. at 948.

Information accumulated from the GPS tracking device was used to prosecute the defendant of conspiracy to possess and distribute a controlled...