Re: And I thought warrantless wiretaps were bad!!!!!!
You're assuming the information has any bearing on a legal case. I'm assuming a cop with a vendetta that just wants to make your life difficult. Easier access to information they have no justifiable need for makes them screwing with you easier, and less likely to be noticed by superiors (due to less resources necessary).
I'd ammend this to say: less likely to *immediately* be noticed by superiors. I'm assuming that, like the other information (background checks, etc) the access to the information is logged. I think this is a fair assumption.
See - we're hearing about unnecessary background checks on stars, because they're famous and there were a lot of them. How many unnecessary background checks were done on the non-well-known? How many of those get caught by the audits? Not many - and a huge number of unjustified and unnecessary get done every day.
What I don't see here is any actual effect. So, if some law enforcement agent knows where my car is - so what? Like I've stated, this information is obtainable today. My neighbors can know when I come and go. I could watch my neighbors driveways to see when they come and go. I see no new capabilities in this.
I suppose I'm not that imaginative, but I can't see a scenario where this can be used against me. Of course, if I were going somewhere illegal - or had something to hide - that would be a different story.
No, but Billy Bob LocalCop is quite likely to intentionally select the names of some people he doesn't get along with, and use that information for nefarious purposes... you know - political enemies, the kid down the street sleeping with his daughter, the guy that beat him up in high school, etc.
All information he could get by following these people. Or hiring/convincing someone to do it for him. And, there could be no record of it, especially if he did it in his off time. With a GPS type system - you would see records of him periodically accessing the system for those people's records.
Point is, that if Billy Bob LocalCop is out to get someone, and willing to go beyond what's legal, then there's a good chance he will. At least the GPS record removes the possibility of fudged observations, and could actually help someone in the case of police harassment. (It would help establish a pattern of unecessary scrutany).
A huge amount of the data entry for current police databases is done by private contractors - and the very existence of the data exponentially increases the odds that someone who shouldn't be looking (law enforcement or otherwise) will be looking.
The sort of data entry that you are talking about is taking information off of some paper/external format and copying it into the system. You know - when you go to the DMV and fill out a form, or when a cop writes up a ticket on their ticket pad, etc.
I would hope that the GPS information didn't work that way - even if you set the collection rate at 1 data point every 5 minutes, you are talking 288 data points per 24 hour period. Per car. This could be compressed a bit by adding a counter and a location (ie: 5 readings at location xxyyzz). Also note that those data points would need to include count, time, and GPS location - so, like 10 (gps) + 18 (time/date) + 4 (?) count = 32 characters to enter per GPS reading. Given a manual data entry error rate of 1 char in every 300 we would have about 30
errors per day per car, upper end. As an average.
On the whole, I don't see any increase in capability given by a GPS tracking system. Police can certainly track a car now - either by following it with another car, air, or perhaps by monitoring a cell phone. The capabilities exist to do this sort of thing by satelite, although at a limited availability.
The only difference would be they can track more cars in the same period of time - something they could do by hiring more people if they had the need. Bottom line, it is just a more cost-effective method of doing something that can already be done.
