Washington State Supreme Court Rules GPS Intrusive, Requires Warrant
Supreme Court of the State of Washington , Associated Press, Directions Magazine
Olympia, Washington - In a decision handed down September 11, Washington State Supreme Court Justice Barbara A. Madsen called the use of a GPS device that led to the discovery of the body of a missing 9 year old girl, "a particularly intrusive method of surveillance, making it possible to acquire an enormous amount of personal information about he citizen under circumstances where the individual is unaware that every single vehicle trip taken and the duration of every single stop may be recorded by the government." Police obtained a warrant in this case and sought to link the murder of Valiree Jackson to her father, William Jackson by tracking his vehicle to the location of the gravesite. In his appeal, Jackson sought to have the warrants thrown out and his conviction overturned. The state supreme court confirmed the validity of the warrants, but continued that "If police are not required to obtain a warrant under article 1, section 7 before attaching a GPS device to a citizen's vehicle, then there is no limitation on the State's use of these devices on any person's vehicle, whether criminal activity is suspected or not.
