GPS data at issue in Peterson case

CNN.com/Law center ^ | Tuesday, February 17, 2004

[runningbear]

for today's court hearing Scott Peterson Trial.

[runningbear]

Pinging for hearing today....

[runningbear]

Pinging for hearing today....

[Tijeras_Slim]

"Hello, Onstar, how can I help you?

"How many pounds of cement do I need to weigh down a body?"

"About 100 sir, and thank you for using Onstar."

[Constitution Day]

"About 100 sir, and thank you for using Onstar."

Unnamed sources say that Scotty is completely behind the current boycott of OnStar.
"Because of privacy concerns?", you might ask?

No, because they gave crappy advice! ;)

[Grampa Dave]

So that will be a new On Star commercial?

You are really good when you are really bad.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for the ping. This is really interesting.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Good morning Grampa! :)

[Grampa Dave]

Good Morning!

Your great humor shared with us on this thread, is what makes FR so much fun when we read the news on FR. We get the real story with some great humor weaved in the replies.

[blackdog]

It can't be admitted as evidence. The same idea that it could be used to prosecute could be twisted in future crimes to establish locations which could prove innocence falsly.

All you would have to do is let an accomplice drive your car to Vegas or Tahoe while you whack someone in LA, and then use the Onstar data to clear you.

Any Onstar data, short of a video establishing who is at the wheel with a time/date stamp would be reasonable doubt either way IMHO.

[templar]

I'm not clear on whether the GPS tracker was installed with or without a court order. Anyone know?

[XHogPilot]

Wow, GPS is unreliable - somebody better tell the FAA!

Let's see, last week we flew 263 people up our West Coast, into Canadian airspace, then Alaska, across the Bering Straits into Russia, international airspace controlled by North Korea, and completed the 5214 nautical miles in 12 hours 27 minutes of precision GPS navigation by landing in Seoul Korea (plus or minus 33 feet).

Not reliable at all, not sir... /sarcasm

For inquiring minds:
KSFO RBL J1 OED J501 TOU J523 YZT J502 ANN J195 KBA LAIRE J711 HBK J133 ANC J111 OME YUREE G212 GA B337 ODORA B233 DE B467 KAE G597 DARBU RKSI

[libstripper]

Not necessarily so. People who are traveling do many other things beyond just driving, like purchasing meals and renting lodging. If done with a credit card, all of this leaves a remarkably clear paper trail, often with signed credit card slips along the way, which provide additional evidence to verify that a particular person was driving a particular vehicle at a given time.

Also, if the only evidence of a vehicle's driver's location is GPS data, other information about where that person was and who had access to her vehicle could be introduced to support or refute the assumption that she was driving the vehicle.

Finally, on the issue of GPS itself, I have it on my vehicle and it is uncannily accurate, usually within about 50 feet. Government agencies also consistently use it when the want to establish the accurate locations of buildings and other facilities. For example, the Tennessee Valley Authority, for which I worked before retiring, used and uses GPS fixes to locate and identify each of its many buildings for Federal energy reporting purposes.

[Devil_Anse]

That's why they accompanied the GPS with a person following him.

[Devil_Anse]

They got court orders to place the tracking devices.

[IYAS9YAS]

I have a Garmin Geko 101 (cheapie model) and it often gets me within 9 feet or less of my intended target (Geocaching). Thing cost barely more than $100.

[blackdog]

My airplane uses GPS and I'm quite aware of it's use.

When I'm scud running and flying an unpublished approach into my airport, my transponder is turned off, thank you!

And yes....The credit cards, toll booth cameras, mini-mart gas purchases, and such go without saying.

That known, every technology can be thwarted with common sense and low-tech methods. The more and more law enforcement becomes dependant on such tactics, the easier it will be to beat them.

Imagine a task force trying to pin something on a suspect and they are trying to establish that he travelled from LA to Reno and back. They would merely review all the video tapes of gas stations along the routes. But what if the suspect kept a few Gerry Cans of gasoline in the vehicle, allowing him or her to go thousands of miles without a fill? Swap plates on a car randomly at a hospital or shift working business. Use them for a few days and then swap them back. Shift workers are useful. They won't even notice unless plates were just missing. They won't even notice changed numbers.

Any traffic cameras use plate numbers.

Use shot noise generators to trash any evesdropping devices or wireless transmissions. They cost a few bucks to make.

The same technology used to prosecute you can be turned around to cover-up for you. A strong defense can be mounted by using technology to exhonorate you if you know how to go about it.

[blackdog]

GPS on my airplane is accurate to within about 20 feet per deflection increment. A localizer and glideslope indicator are accurate to within about five feet per increment at the middle marker and about two feet per increment after the inner marker beacon.

GPS is great for universal use, but when things are really foul, nothing beats the localizer. Strictly analog devices though.

[Freedom2specul8]

"A prosecution witness testified last week that the GPS devices, despite briefly malfunctioning at least four times, accurately tracked Peterson to San Francisco Bay."

I want this to be allowed in so bad..but where does the privacy laws start and end?

[blackdog]

If you find the bandwidth the GPS is using, you can stomp it out from right inside the vehicle. I used to have a real problem with a comm radio which would stomp out the whole panel when the microphone was keyed. GPS, LORAN(C), ADF, and VOR/Localizers would just go haywire. When things got busy in the cockpit on occasion I hated a busy radio because it took about fifteen seconds for all the Navigation devices to come back to normal after each transmission.