Warrants for Police GPS Surveillance?

From NACDL

Washington, DC­ (Feb. 6, 2009) -- A diverse group of civil liberties and religious organizations this week weighed in on the question of whether police need a warrant in order to conduct surveillance of personal vehicles by secretly attaching global positioning satellite (GPS) transmitters. The case, which is scheduled to be heard next month in New York’s highest court, has profound implications for the privacy rights of individuals and organizations.

Low-cost GPS transmitters can be secretly attached to a vehicle and pinpoint the vehicle’s location on public or private property, within a few feet or yards, to virtually any computer with an internet connection. The devices are useful for tracking a vehicle or person in real-time, but the data also can be permanently stored and subjected to pattern analysis, revealing not just a person’s whereabouts, but his habits, associations, who his friends are, where he shops, banks and goes to church, and a host of other information. The coalition argues that court supervision should be required to protect First and Fourth Amendment privacy rights.

In People v. Weaver, scheduled for argument in the New York Court of Appeals March 24, the court will be considering whether a police officer, in his own discretion, may undertake GPS surveillance of individuals without any judicial oversight at all. The court below held that there is no obligation to obtain a warrant prior to undertaking such monitoring. Members of the public have no way of knowing if their movements are subject to electronic surveillance from which there is no legal protection.