GPS controversy
It’s no secret that GPS tracking devices are controversial with patrol officers, deputies and troopers. Boston cops are the latest group to express concern about putting the tracking devices in all the Boston PD cruisers.
The Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association did not immediately respond to requests for comment but several officers who wished to remain anonymous spoke out against the plan.
“No one likes it. Who wants to be followed all over the place?” said one officer who spoke anonymously because department rules forbid police from speaking to the media without authorization. “If I take my cruiser and I meet reluctant witnesses to talk, eventually they can follow me and say, ‘Why were you in a back dark street for 45 minutes?’ It’s going to open up a can of worms that can’t be closed.”
Does your agency track your movements with a GPS device? If so we would like to hear your story. Leave in comments section below.
Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
We have been dealing with this for several years now in Long Beach. When the GPS or AVL (automatic vehicle locator) first went active we had an agreement with the administration that it would not be used to open administrative complaints against officers. It was going to be allowed to be used for citizen complaints and for dispatching purposes. That worked very well for a couple years, but today it is being used for everything. We have had 6 terminations recently that all had the GPS information used as a critical part of the investigation.
The hard part is that some of the behavior is inexplicable. Things like not responding to calls, avoiding dangerous dispatches, spending inordinate amounts of time at a girlfriends house, etc.
This is a tough issue with a lot of perceptual pitfalls.