Detectives in TV crime dramas routinely track suspects by using the Global Positioning System (GPS) to track their cell phones. Here in Wisconsin, the state Supreme Court is considering whether or not it's constitutional for police to do that without a search warrant.
The court heard oral arguments in a case last week where a defendant convicted of murder challenged the right of police to use GPS to track his location in order to arrest him. Justice Michael Gableman asked the prosecutor in the case whether police should be allowed to use cell phones to track people's personal lives, simply because they may be a crime suspect.
Gableman: “Is that the kind of information that we ought to let the government have unfettered access to? And we're talking about this in the context of revelations coming about what the federal government may be engaged in when it comes to finding out personal information about the citizens. Shouldn't we be concerned about this, Mr. O’Brien?”
In the case being argued the defendant, Osorio Subdiaz, was fleeing the state after witnesses say he stabbed his brother. Police called up the Sprint network, who gave them access to Subdiaz's cell phone coordinates, which they used to find and arrest him on a highway in Arkansas. His attorney, Lanny Ginsberg, told the court because police did not get a search warrant for the cell phone data, they violated Subdiaz's 4th Amendment right to be free of unreasonable search and seizure.
Ginsberg: “What I am asking this court to do is play its traditional role in making a determination about where the line is drawn between the rights of privacy of the individual and the state's interest in conducting surveillance.” Gableman: “And so to be clear, I infer that you are asking for a warrant requirement?” Ginsberg: “Indeed I am. This was a search and a warrant was appropriate.”
The state argues that cell phone contracts include provisions that allow the company to give out GPS data without a warrant if there is an emergency.
