Ohio: Secret GPS on cars upheld

Roads are public, so warrants not needed, courts say

A Franklin County (Ohio) judge has ruled that deputies didn't violate the constitutional rights of two home-invasion suspects by attaching a GPS device to their car without a warrant.

Common Pleas Judge Michael J. Holbrook issued the decision yesterday in the case of Montie E. Sullivan and David L. White, who are awaiting trial in six home-invasion robberies in Franklin County.

The ruling is consistent with a decision handed down last year by a judge in Fairfield County, where the pair were convicted in what investigators said was the last in a string of home invasions.

An Ohio appeals court also ruled last year that motorists should not expect privacy when traveling on public roads, meaning that their movements could be monitored with a tracking device.

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2011/05/10/secret-gps-on-cars-upheld.html?sid=101

Something tells me that the cars were probably located on private property when GPS devices were affixed to them.

Does that mean I can go into Boners office and look for evidence of his corruption without a warrant? We the people own the capital building after all.

PRIVATE PROPERTY.

This is akin to claiming:
You live in a house, but the TOWN where the house is located is a public entity; ergo, we can snoop inside your house minus a warrant.

And this "no expectation of privacy in public" is specious at best. So the Ohio court is ruling that the police of any level can simply follow each and every one of us when we are away from our domiciles?

Meanwhile, that government of the people gets more secretive every day, as do the corporate masters.

Here's a novel idea: LET'S MAKE THE VOTING SYSTEM OPEN TO SCRUTINY. LET'S ATTACH GPS DEVICES TO THE BALLOT BAGS.

The White House is floating the tax per mile to replace the gas tax again....of course the only way to do that is to track us......the new EBS system will be on our smart phones that will be fitted with a tracking device and chip so we can receive messages from the president and of course there is the insurance industry that wants us to have a device on our car so they can track our driving habites.......:argh:

No need to assess property tax on those nice rich people. Just keep a detailed record of changes in our GPS location, and send us a bill at the end of each month. Even better - automatic debit.

I'll get a speeding ticket too?

How about fined for destroying government property.

:rofl: Because I can't cry.

-Hoot

I see that coming soon.....

The logic would say so.

The 4th Amendment died on 9/11. There is no privacy anywhere a radio signal can penetrate.

Sideways radar and infrared cameras see nicely through most houses, as well. Next market - law enforcement. Wave when the wave hits you!

I don't understand why getting a warrent was a problem. They obviously suspected (rightly it appears), these guys were commiting the crimes. Is getting a warrent to track the car such a big deal?

isn't it?

:think:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/05/gps

Kathy Thomas knew she was under surveillance. The animal rights and environmental activist had been trailed daily by cops over several months, and had even been stopped on occasion by police and FBI agents

But when the surveillance seemed to halt suddenly in mid-2005 after she confronted one of the agents, she thought it was all over. Months went by without a peep from the FBI surveillance teams that had been tracking her in undercover vehicles and helicopters. That’s when it occurred to her to check her car...

Also, would the men have faced prosecution for theft if they disconnected and sold the unit?