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Tracking is Stalking
By Randy Wyles | July 28, 2010
Many GPS equipment manufacturers and retailers are trying to convince people that private investigators aren’t needed any longer – that the days of the P. I. may be numbered due to the technology of the future, the GPS tracking device. The idea is that anyone can buy a tracking device and discover where someone is going. So, why use a private investigator?
Let’s deal with first things first; GPS manufacturers and retailers are selling GPS tracking systems. And calling GPS technology the “way of the future” or “the cutting edge of” something or another in an ad for a GPS tracking system is really, well – just wrong.
The technology is based, at least in part, on World War II ground based radio navigation technology. But when Sputnik was launched by the Soviets in 1957 it changed everything.
Scientists noticed the “Doppler effect” – meaning that the signal transmitted by Sputnik was higher as the satellite approached and lower after it had passed over and was moving away. It’s the same effect that occurs when you hear the tone of an approaching car horn suddenly become lower after it passes by. “Doppler effect radar” is now used in weather radar systems to pinpoint changing weather events.
Scientists locked onto this phenomenon, developed a satellite based system with the purpose of pinpointing earth bound vehicles and within four years of Sputnik, the U.S. Navy was operating Transit – the world’s first satellite navigation system. Through the 1960s and 1970s, variations and new systems were improved and became reliable and accurate enough to guide Cold War era U.S. Navy submarine-launched ballistic missiles as well as U.S. Air Force strategic bomber and land based intercontinental missiles precisely to their targets anywhere on the globe.
Then in 1983, Korean Air Lines Flight 007 – with 269 civilian passengers and crew on board – was shot down after the flight strayed into Soviet airspace. President Ronald Reagan issued a directive making GPS freely available for civilian use. By the mid-1990s some two-dozen GPS dedicated satellites had been launched and were in service.
So, new? Not really. Cutting edge? Maybe. And do private investigators already use the technology as a tool for their investigations – you bet.
But here’s the big difference; anyone can buy a GPS tracking system, attach it to a vehicle and get an accurate reading on where the vehicle is going or where it’s been. But once the vehicle is there, then what? You still need photo or video evidence because merely saying someone’s car was where it wasn’t supposed to be doesn’t hold up very well in court – especially when you find out, during cross examination, that the car was loaned to a friend. Now, that’s embarrassing – and costly.
You see, you still have to have eyes on the subject to make sure of what the subject is doing and where the subject really is at the time. CIA operatives will tell you that it’s great having a photo of the bad guys from a “keyhole-class” satellite. But even a $1-billion satellite with high resolution imaging can’t tell you what the bad guys said or who they might have met with under the tent, inside the bar or in a high rise office building. Most reconnaissance takes real live people getting close enough to see and even hear what’s going on – close enough to get photo or video.
That kind of evidence is called “irrefutable” and it’s the kind of evidence that wins cases.
Besides, if you put a GPS tracking device on someone’s car to “spy” on them, your case will be thrown out of court and you will be locked up for “stalking.” Why? You’re not a licensed private investigator – the only defense against the stalking laws. So, it’s really best to hire a professional.
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