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Old February 20th 04, 08:06 PM
Michael Houghton
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Howdy!

In article ,
Gig Giacona wrote:

"Michael Houghton" wrote in message
...
Howdy!

In article .net,
Dave S wrote:
The actual news article goes into this detail. After Laci Peterson was
reported missing, the police department placed covert GPS tracking
devices on all of his vehicles and monitored the vehicle (and therefore
Scott's) whereabouts pretty much constantly. This explains how they
thought he was headed for Mexico to flee the country. The defense
attorney is trying to get this surveillance data thrown out/disallowed..
and in trying to do so invoked the claim that if GPS wasnt accurate
enough to land airplanes, it wasnt iron-clad enough to be used as
evidence in a capital case.

On its face, this is a bit disturbing. Did the police have the sanction
of the courts before emplacing these devices? If not, it smacks of
unlawful search, etc. On the other hand, if a court issued the moral
equivalent of a search warrant permitting the use of them, he's just in
deep doodoo...


I'm quite sure if the action was even bordering on Mr. Peterson's rights his
attorney would have been using that to get the tracking thrown out.

I would not be so blindly confident in his attorney's attention to detail.

How would you feel about the police secreting a GPS tracker on your vehicles?
If they were doing it on their own recognizance, I'd expect information
so gathered to be tainted. If they convinced a judge that it needed done,
they would be on firmer ground. ...and tame judges can be found in most
jurisdictions.

yours,
Michael


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