A court in Wisconsin upheld the legal right of police attaching a GPS device to a vehicle without a warrant and without needing to alert the person being tracked.
MADISON, Wis. – Wisconsin police can attach GPS to cars to secretly track anybody’s movements without obtaining search warrants, an appeals court ruled Thursday.
However, the District 4 Court of Appeals said it was “more than a little troubled” by that conclusion and asked Wisconsin lawmakers to regulate GPS use to protect against abuse by police and private individuals.
As the law currently stands, the court said police can mount GPS on cars to track people without violating their constitutional rights — even if the drivers aren’t suspects.
Officers do not need to get warrants beforehand because GPS tracking does not involve a search or a seizure, Judge Paul Lundsten wrote for the unanimous three-judge panel based in Madison.
Do you think this sort of warrantless GPS tracking is a violation of our Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure?
Or is this sort of police GPS tracking of any citizen just a Panopticonic extension of traditional police surveillance used during a stakeout?