High-tech tracking by police raises legal outcry

>From The Orange County Register, Front Page, Sunday 1-5-97

Police across the country secretly tail hundres of people each year by attaching high-tech
transmitters to suspects' cars and tracking them on squadroom computer screens.

Detectives, federal agents and prosecutors routinely conceal use of the technology from
defendants, their lawyers and the public, an investigation by The Orange County Register
has found. Autorities in Orange County often plant the devices on cars without getting
a warrant from a judge.

...

The technology, marketed by a company called Teletrac, is simple: A tramsmitter sends a
radio signal to a computer, which pinpoints the car's street location. Police with the 
proper software can follow a transimitter-equipped vehicle in real time as it moves across a
street map on a computer screen.

...

"Is there any expectation of privacy on the whereabouts of a car on a public street? I
suggest there isn't," said [Jeffrey] Ferguson, president of the county's narcotics officer's
association. "I've told them they don't need a warrant unless they intend to enter a car."

...

The system automatically records the time, date, location and duration of the car's stops.
The system could tell police, for example, that the suspect's car stopped on Main Street
between 4th and 5th streest for about an hour on Jan. 5. The records help police focus
their investigation on places the suspects visits.

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Obviously, several list members were wrong. Travel GAK is not coming; It is already here.


<CENTER>BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING</CENTER>

Secret Squirrel wrote:
> 
> The technology, marketed by a company called Teletrac, is simple: 
> A tramsmitter sends a radio signal to a computer ...

Anybody know the frequencies used?

(Anybody willing to guess whether the FCC might quietly introduce
prohibitions against scanners that can receive those frequencies?)

(Gee, that looks paranoid.)

-- 
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Mike McNally -- Egregiously Pointy -- Tivoli Systems, "IBM" -- Austin
mailto:m5@tivoli.com    mailto:m101@io.com    http://www.io.com/~m101
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Mike McNally wrote:
> Secret Squirrel wrote:
> > The technology, marketed by a company called Teletrac, is simple:
> > A tramsmitter sends a radio signal to a computer ...

> Anybody know the frequencies used?
> (Anybody willing to guess whether the FCC might quietly introduce
> prohibitions against scanners that can receive those frequencies?)

The newer scanners are apparently moving more of their "intelligence"
to EEPROM (or Flash memory), which makes a permanent fix extremely
difficult for the feds.