[tt] AP: Police Using G.P.S. Units as Evidence in Crimes

[Premise Checker]

Police Using G.P.S. Units as Evidence in Crimes
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/us/31gps.html

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Like millions of motorists, Eric Hanson used a Global Positioning
System device in his Chevrolet TrailBlazer to find his way around.
He probably did not expect that prosecutors would use it, too -- to
help convict him of killing four family members.

Prosecutors in suburban Chicago analyzed data from the Garmin G.P.S.
device to pinpoint where Mr. Hanson had been on the morning after
his parents were fatally shot and his sister and brother-in-law
bludgeoned to death in 2005. He was convicted of the killings this
year and sentenced to death.

Mr. Hanson's trial was among recent criminal cases in which the
authorities used such navigation devices to help establish a
defendant's whereabouts. Experts say such evidence will almost
certainly become more common in court as the systems become more
affordable and show up in more vehicles.

"There's no real doubt," said Alan Brill, a computer forensics
expert in Minnesota who has worked with the Federal Bureau of
Investigation and the Secret Service. "This follows every other
technology that turns out to have information of forensic value. I
think what we're seeing is evolutionary."

Using technology to track a person's location is nothing new, but
the popularity of the Global Positioning System -- in cars,
cellphones and other handheld devices -- gives the authorities a
powerful tool to track suspects.

In September, a man in Butte, Mont., pleaded guilty to rape after a
judge ruled that evidence from the global positioning unit in his
car could be used against him at trial. Prosecutors planned to use
it to show that the man, Brian D. Adolf, "prowled" in the town
looking for a victim.

In New Brighton, Pa., a trucker's system led the police to charge
him with setting his own home on fire. The system's records showed
his rig was parked about 100 yards from his house at the time of the
fire.

Critics, however, say the police should be allowed to acquire global
positioning data only by getting a warrant. Renée Hutchins, a
University of Maryland law professor, wrote an article recently
suggesting Global Positioning System data was protected under the
Fourth Amendment.

"I think that in the last couple of years," Ms. Hutchins said,
"people are starting to be aware that if they have these units in
their car, people can keep track of you. I think it's a growing
public awareness. The problem is that most people feel like, `I'm
not doing anything wrong, so who cares?' But I think that's the
wrong way of looking at it."

Developed for the military, the navigation devices started showing
up in cars in the 1990s. Prices have dropped sharply in the past few
years, and many units cost less than $150. The Consumer Electronics
Association estimates that 20 percent of American households own a
portable Global Positioning System unit and that 9 percent have
vehicles equipped with in-dash systems.