Emily Bartelheim &
Ramsey Kincannon
News Editors
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) recently released a new study which showed that “virtually all [of the 200 police departments examined] track the location of cell phones with data supplied by wireless carriers” (cnn.com).
The discovery comes on the heels of other alleged civil rights abuses by a variety of local, state and federal governments. Some other violations include the New York Police Department’s “Stop, Question and Frisk” policy, which allowed for police officers to legally search New York residents in order to prevent violent crimes from occurring. This is in addition to the variety of allegations against various police departments during the “occupy” movements.
The ACLU, unsurprisingly, strongly disagrees with this practice. “The government’s location tracking policies should be clear, uniform and protective of privacy, but instead are in a state of chaos, with agencies in different towns following different rules — or in some cases, no rules at all” says the official ACLU statement.
Some agencies have defended their methods, saying that they track a person’s cell phone only in dire emergencies, like when there is a missing person. In addition, officials contend that the time it takes to obtain a warrant is a crucial waste of time in a time-sensitive investigation. However, the ACLU reported that many agencies have done this in non-emergency situations.