Technologies that employ some aspect of tracking and monitoring are all around these days, and although many people might consider such applications an invasion of privacy, it’s hard to deny that tracking technology has crime-fighting applications that come in handy.
Take, for instance, the Bulgarian airport customs official who recently-and unfortunately-learned of the global positioning system capabilities in cell phones. The official allegedly lifted the cell phone of a U.S. ambassador while the ambassador was making his way through an airport X-ray inspection. When the ambassador realized his phone was missing, a search ensued in the immediate area, turning up nothing. The technology-savvy ambassador thought to fire up his laptop and activate his phone’s GPS technology. Moments later, the customs official was busted with the no-longer missing phone. Doh!
Another technology-inept culprit is now behind bars in Pennsylvania, for murder.
When Jimmy Davis rented a Lincoln Navigator in February 2004, he apparently didn’t know that the vehicle was equipped with CSI Wireless Inc.’s Asset-Link GPS technology.
Davis drove from New York City to Wilkes-Barre, Pa., where he shot and killed 42-year-old Sheryl Spiros, and then started a fire in her apartment.
The police had no leads for more than a year. In May 2005, they learned of the rented SUV’s asset tracking device and contacted its developer, Calgary, Alberta-based CSI Wireless. The company sent Ron Ramsaran, a geomatics engineering expert, to provide his assistance as they built their case around GPS technology recorded in the vehicle’s GPS equipment.
First, Ramsaran showed investigators that GPS placed the Navigator at Spiros’ apartment building at the time the murder had taken place. Then, he showed them that the technology had recorded that the ignition of the vehicle had been started a minute before the Wilkes-Barre firefighters responded to the apartment fire. Next, the Navigator was tracked driving away from the crime scene, driving onto the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Interstate 80 in New Jersey, stopping along the way at hotels and convenience stores.
“The GPS technology showed us where to look for other evidence,” said Jacqueline Musto Carroll, the first assistant district attorney in Luzerne County, Pa.
“As we reviewed the GPS information, we were able to obtain records from a New York hotel where the defendant had checked in, using his own identification. This proved that not only was the vehicle at the hotel, but that the defendant himself was at the hotel.
“And GPS pointed out that the defendant stopped at a convenience store. We were able to obtain video-surveillance tapes proving again that the defendant himself was at the same location as the vehicle.”
Davis was arrested in July, and the case was set to go to trial. Before the case went to court, Davis pled guilty to third-degree murder. He was sentenced in Luzerne County Court Sept. 19 and now is serving 19 to 40 years in prison.
“The GPS technology fascinated me, and I know it would have fascinated the jury,” said Carroll. “Ramsaran really brought the technology into laymen’s terms. It was easy to understand.”
“The technology can be used for both real-time or recorded tracking,” said Ramsaran. “In this case, the recorded latitudes and longitudes pointed out not only where the vehicle had traveled, but also its speed and its ignition activities.”
Ramsaran explained that CSI’s Asset-Link technology usually is used to track the locations of fleet vehicles, and there are variations of what information companies can record. For instance, the CSI application can establish a geo-fence and then send an alert signal when a vehicle leaves the pre-determined area, such as crossing a state line. Or a company can be alerted when one of its vehicles sits idling for periods longer than it deems practical.
And just in case any wise guys think they can disable or remove the GPS equipment, think again. First, good luck finding the device. Ramsaran said although the device is an after-market product, it is installed in such a way that a vehicle would have to be dismantled to a large degree to disable or remove the device from the vehicle.
The system also has an internal backup power supply should the main power source become disconnected from the tracking equipment, whether it happens by accident or on purpose.
While every vehicle may not have GPS technology for at least a few years, location-based services quickly are being added to handsets.
ABI Research points out that up until a few months ago, Nextel Communications Inc. was the only wireless operator offering LBS in the United States. ABI said LBS should pick up speed in 2006, with Sprint Nextel Corp. leading the way, having already introduced an operator-assisted direction-finding service.
“When it comes to LBS, we’ve moved quickly from a walking pace to a run,” said Kenneth Hyers, principal analyst with ABI Research. “As we forecast last year, GPS-an essential element for LBS-is starting to be included in GSM and W-CDMA handsets as well as CDMA.”
Hyers explained that LBS will proliferate along with other services, like gaming, 411, messaging andphotography-all of which will be bolstered and powered by LBS.
As for the crime-fighting possibilities, Carroll said: “It’s an exploding science, and word of GPS technology is spreading around the criminal justice community. I wish every vehicle came equipped with GPS technology.”
