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Friday, September 18, 2009

Courts - "Massachusetts high court OK's use of secret GPS tracking devices"

Adding to the growing list of ILB entries on various aspects of the use of GPS tracking devices, yesterday the Massachusetts high court ruled:

[U]sing GPS devices as an investigative tool – which can require police to secretly break into a vehicle to install the device – does not violate the ban on unreasonable search and seizures found in the state’s Declaration of Rights.

“We hold that warrants for GPS monitoring of a vehicle may be issued,’’ Cowin wrote. “The Commonwealth must establish, before a magistrate… that GPS monitoring of the vehicle will produce evidence’’ that a crime has been committed, or will be committed in the near future.

The SJC said the devices can only be installed for 15 days. Generally, search warrants are in effect for just seven days.

Three justices – Justices Ralph Gants, Robert Cordy and Margot Botsford – generally agreed with Cowin's conclusion. But they said the SJC must address the issue through the prism of privacy rights of the individual to be free from constant government monitoring.

“Our constitutional analysis should focus on the privacy interest at risk from contemporaneous GPS monitoring, not simply the property interest,’’ Justice Ralph Gants wrote for the group.

“Only then will we be able to establish a constitutional jurisprudence that can adapt to changes in the technology of real-time monitoring, and that can better balance the legitimate needs of law enforcement with the legitimate privacy concerns of our citizens," he wrote.

The Boston Globe story quoted was reported by John R. Ellement. Here is an updated version, dated today, that begins:
For the first time, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled yesterday that the state constitution allows police to break into a suspect’s car to secretly install tracking devices using a global positioning system, provided that authorities have a warrant before they do so.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 18, 2009 10:44 AM
Posted to Courts in general