Wisconsin Decision On GPS Devices

Police did not violate a defendant’s constitutional protections against unreasonable search and seizure when they impounded his car and secretly installed a GPS device on it, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled. The defendant was stopped  by police who suspected him in a number of burglaries . The police impounded the  vehicle the defendant was driving and secretly installed a GPS device.

Police obtained a warrant from a  judge to “place an electronic tracking device” on the Pontiac, but the warrant did not specify the device’s features in detail.  Access  ruling of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin at this link.

United States v. Jones, ___ U.S. ___, 132 S. Ct. 945 (2012), establishes that the installation of a GPS device in a car constitutes a search within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment.

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