Is it suddenly 1984 and nobody told us?
Well, if you are referring to the 1984 of George Orwell’s novel of the same name where the ubiquitous “Big Brother” is always watching citizens we would have to say a definite yes. And for the less literate readers out there, by “Big Brother” we are not referring to the reality show of the same name on CBS. Read a book!
So how is the government keeping tabs on the activities of motorists in this great nation of ours? The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that law enforcement officials now have the right to use or place GPS tracking equipment on cars of suspicious individuals without a warrant.
Just imagine how many vehicles out there with those fancy GPS navigators will now be super easy for the powers that be to monitor.
While we applaud law enforcement using any new technology to take down the “bad guys,” we wonder why using GPS tracking shouldn’t require a warrant. Getting a warrant from the court is a check and balance system to keep overzealous individuals from abusing their powers. Powers, mind you, that are granted to these law enforcers by the citizenry. Without warrants, our law enforcers could be left to abuse the system like those past organizations without any monitoring such as the KGB in the U.S.S.R and the SS in Nazi Germany.
Some may find that last analogy to be a little over reaching but America’s system of checks and balances is what separates it from other countries in the world. It is also one of the defining credos outlined in our Constitution. While the results inherent in using GPS technology to track suspects are no doubt impressive, care must be taken in order that civil liberties are not violated.
An example of this new technology working came in the case of U.S v. Garcia where police used a GPS tracker to follow the vehicle of a suspect out to a remote patch of land. At the place where the suspect had driven his truck the police found a fully functioning meth lab. Later, the police used the GPS locater to meet up with the suspect at the lab. In the suspect’s car they found supplies for the creation of more meth and thereby had a pretty much slam dunk case against the suspect.
So how can this be bad? The cops used the new technology and one less meth lab is in production. That is, of course, simple to see. The only question is why shouldn’t cops have to get a warrant to use the GPS? They still would have caught the meth lab as it was in a set location and wasn’t exactly going to travel on roller skates to Mexico.
Regardless of what plays out in the courts there is no doubt that the use of GPS tracking and the widespread use of GPS navigators in cars will make it easier for the government to keep track of us. Whether or not that is a good thing is up to your point of view.