Pubdate: Thu, 26 Jan 2012
Source: Chico News & Review, The (CA)
Copyright: 2012 Chico Community Publishing, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.newsreview.com/chico/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/559

SUPREME COURT NAILS GPS ISSUE

Butte County Law Enforcement Will Have to Change Tracking Policies

The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling this week that law-enforcement 
agencies cannot affix GPS monitors to citizens' vehicles without a 
warrant is a good one that will have effects locally.

We know the Butte County Sheriff's Office has used GPS devices in 
order to obtain search warrants because we've seen the search-warrant 
affidavits that explain their use. This is a violation of people's 
privacy and, in the few cases we've seen, has added little to the 
investigation.

Consider the case of Dylan Tellesen, who was targeted during the 
investigation into eight local medical-marijuana dispensaries back in 
2010. In most of those cases, officers did physical surveillance, 
meaning they sat outside the dispensaries and noted vehicles and 
people coming and going. In Tellesen's case, however, they affixed a 
GPS tracker to his car and then retrieved it days later and noted his 
movements-to and from Redding and Butte College, but never to the 
dispensary, CPC, that they supposed he owned.

"The fact that a CPC employee stated the owner of CPC was in Redding, 
California and the fact that I independently obtained information 
that Dylan Tellesen's vehicle was in Redding, California further 
shows that Dylan Tellesen is the owner of CPC," reads the affidavit.

That, apparently, was enough for the Sheriff's Office to obtain a 
search warrant for Tellesen's home and person. He and his family 
underwent quite an ordeal, emotionally and financially, because of 
it, only to be found to have no connection to any of the 
dispensaries. (Tellesen was actually in Redding to paint a mural.)

We fully back the Supreme Court's decision that the use of GPS 
devices without a warrant violates Americans' Fourth Amendment rights 
against unreasonable searches and seizures. We also agree with the 
minority opinion that constant monitoring for sustained periods of 
time surpasses a person's reasonable expectation of privacy.

Undersheriff Kory Honea told the Chico Enterprise-Record earlier this 
week that he'll be reviewing the Sheriff's Office's policy. Score one 
for civil liberties.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom