Cops Knocked Over Using GPS to Tail Suspects

As GPS units become cheaper and easier to use, police forces around the country are turning to the technology to easily track suspects. The Washington Post examines the advantages of this new crime-fighting weapon, and the privacy concerns it’s raising among critics. Cops can easily attach a GPS device to anyone’s car and remotely monitor the person’s whereabouts.

Police praise the flexibility GPS provides, freeing up manpower from having to personally tail suspects, and so far courts around the country have upheld the use of tracking without a warrant. But privacy advocates say the ability to continuously track people, and retain that information in a computer, constitutes a more intrusive form of surveillance than physically following them would. (More GPS stories.)