BUMPER CROP FOR COPS

Can Secretly Attach GPS: Judge

Cops without a warrant can secretly attach Global Positioning System
devices to a suspect's vehicle, according to a federal judge - who
said using the gadgets is virtually the same thing as following a car
along a road. The decision handed down by U.S. Judge David Hurd in
upstate Utica last week could give law enforcement officials another
high-tech weapon to catch criminals, but is troubling to privacy advocates.

Hurd ruled that Robert (Bugsy) Moran, a Hells Angel member and defense
attorney accused of conspiring to distribute methamphetamine, had "no
expectation of privacy in the whereabouts of his vehicle on a public
roadway."

"Law enforcement personnel could have conducted a visual surveillance
of the vehicle as it traveled on the public highways," Hurd wrote.

Assistant U.S. Attorney David Grable, who is prosecuting Moran,
strongly backed the ruling.

"Your movements on a highway aren't private," he said. "You don't have
a reasonable expectation of privacy, which is a Fourth Amendment test."

But civil liberties advocates said the decision opens the door to
increased government surveillance.

Miniature GPS receivers are now available for about $1,000 and can be
affixed to the undercarriage of vehicles in minutes.

Hurd's ruling is only binding in his upstate courtroom, said law Prof.
Barry Kamins, but other judges will likely consult it.

"It's kinda scary," said Christopher Dunn, associate legal director of
the New York City Liberties Union. "If this ruling applied to New York
City, the NYPD would be free to go out and attach these devices to
cars and track people without any showing of wrongdoing."

In the Laci Peterson murder case, California detectives got court
permission to hide the devices on three of Scott Peterson's vehicles.
They showed Peterson visited a marina they had searched several times.

Not all judges agree with the most recent federal ruling.

Last year, Nassau County Court Judge Joseph Calabrese said attaching a
GPS device to a car amounted to a search and seizure. "At this time,
more than ever, individuals must be given the constitutional
protections necessary to their continued unfettered freedom from a
'big brother' society," he wrote.