Highest Court to Decide Whether Warrant Required for GPS Tracking by Police

The United States Supreme Court will take under consideration for the first time the question of how federal and state police may proceed in using GPS devices to track the movements of criminal suspects. At issue is whether the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit erred in finding that law enforcement officers violated the defendant's fourth amendment right to privacy by attaching a GPS device to his motor vehicle without having obtained a search warrant to do that in advance.

In Virginia, the question was answered in the Court of Appeals in a decision rendered in April of this year. In that case, the Court of Appeals ruled that Arlington County police did not need a warrant before placing a GPS tracking device on the defendant's work vehicle so that police can track his daily movements without following him. The reasoning behind this decision is there was no expectation of privacy in the defendant's movements. The Court of Appeals reasoned that following the defendant's movements for several consecutive days with a GPS tracking device was little different from using active police surveillance tactics whereby the police could follow him in cars or planes.

This is exactly the argument the United States attorney is likely to make before the Supreme Court. However, as the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit was quick to point out, tracking someone's movements over a long period of time with sophisticated technology is not equivalent to traditional police surveillance methods. That court ruled the constitutional right to privacy was implicated and that the police should have obtained a search warrant before attaching the device to the defendant's car.