9 Investigates

High-tech device can help police track you -- without a warrant

ORLANDO, Fla. — It sounds like something out of a James Bond movie.  Orlando Police use a device that can launch a GPS-enabled dart from some of its tactical vehicles.  That dart will track your movement if you leave a traffic stop.

Investigative reporter Karla Ray looked into how often the technology is used.

Purchase orders show taxpayers have spent more than $81,000 so far on the StarChase equipment and software, to outfit 11 vehicles with covert tracking devices.

On the company’s website, StarChase promises to "empower and protect" police with the GPS darts, aimed at reducing high-speed pursuits.  Orlando Police have used the tracking tags more than 320 times over the course of three years.

“It prevents an officer from engaging a situation where a vehicle pursuit can start, or potentially happen, and someone getting injured as a result of that pursuit,” Orlando police Chief Orlando Rolon said.

Rolon says such technology is aimed at reducing dangerous police pursuits which can put the lives of others at risk.  In 2016, an Ocoee Police officer T-boned another driver during a pursuit that reached high speeds across Orange County.

Orlando’s StarChase policy allows for officers to use the device if they believe a driver they’re trying to pull over is about to take off.  Not everyone believes it’s a positive tool.

“That’s a huge invasion of privacy, that you can just shoot me with a GPS tracker, because you think I'm going to not pull over quick enough,” defense attorney Nicole Dickerson said.  “The general public definitely doesn't know about it.”

9 Investigates: High-tech tracking

SHARE THIS: Did you know police can track you with GPS darts fired from their patrol cars? It sounds like something out of a James Bond movie. Now, 9 Investigates if the tool used to prevent dangerous pursuits can be used in a new kind of profiling. Today on Channel 9 Eyewitness News at 5:45p.m. READ MORE: https://at.wftv.com/2Q6JjFj

Posted by WFTV Channel 9 on Monday, November 19, 2018

Dickerson says she’s represented about two dozen clients who have been tracked via StarChase in what she describes as high-crime neighborhoods in Orlando.  In a transcript of testimony from one of her recent trials, an Orlando Police officer who works as part of a tactical unit testified, “If a StarChase vehicle is available to assist with a traffic stop, we call and attempt to use that just in case the vehicle flees.”

Dickerson argues that equates to a new kind of profiling. “Absolutely, it is, because that assumption that someone will flee is not present in other areas of town,” Dickerson said.

In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that the use of GPS to track an individual’s movements was considered a search. Searches require warrants under the Fourth Amendment. However, StarChase attorneys responded to that ruling by stating that warrants are not necessary when officers have probable cause, and they believe the devices legally track vehicles used in the commission of, or escape from, crimes.

Orlando Police said the darts can only track a driver for 90 minutes.

>> Click here to contact investigative reporter Karla Ray <<

Orlando Police’s pursuit policy prohibits officers from chasing vehicles unless an officer suspects the people inside committed a violent felony.  However, StarChase can be used to track the suspect of any felony.  That means someone who could not physically be followed by a police vehicle under OPD guidelines, could be tracked via StarChase instead.

Rolon insisted his officers are not profiling when using StarChase.

“We can't dictate when that individual is going to elude one of our officers, and that drives the deployment,” Rolon said.  “It just so happens that some areas are more conducive for that activity than others.”

Statistics show pursuits are down in the city of Orlando for 2018, compared to a high number of 18 pursuits in 2015.

In several instances when the GPS darts were deployed, they either missed their targets or bounced off of the target vehicle.  Other times, when drivers heard the dart hit their vehicles, they pulled over and did not need to be tracked via GPS.

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Karla Ray

Karla Ray, WFTV.com

Karla Ray anchors Eyewitness News This Morning on Saturday and Sundays, and is an investigative reporter for the 9 Investigates unit.