The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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May 18, 2008

GPS allows police to electronically track suspects

Some see erosion of privacy rights

MANKATO — Investigators had a tip that 39-year-old Curtis John Rathai was gathering the ingredients he needed to make a batch of methamphetamine, but they had no idea where he might take the cold pills, iodine crystals and other chemicals to start “cooking.”

With the help of a high-tech global positioning system tracking device that had been secretly installed on Rathai’s pickup truck, a drug task force team was able to use a computer and Google mapping to follow Rathai to a rented farmhouse on one of Blue Earth County’s many back roads.

The same tracking device, operated by Nicollet County sheriff’s deputy Marc Chadderdon, was used to build a case against Joseph Dahl, a Watonwan County deputy accused of shirking his duties. Chadderdon installed the small box in Dahl’s squad car, then used computers and the Internet to track everywhere the deputy’s car went for two weeks in late February and early March.

Krista Jass, chief public defender for the state’s 5th Judicial District, said it’s another example of technology being used to erode an individual’s right to privacy. The information gathered also could be used unjustly to make an arrest or search a home, she said.

“Technology is great, but it shouldn’t be a means for the government to violate the Fourth and Fifth amendments,” Jass said. “It is surveillance."



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