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WI: Use of a search warrant to place GPS on car was reasonable

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

The state procured a valid search warrant to put a GPS on defendant’s car while investigating him for stalking. The issue of whether this was a search does not have to be decided. State v. Sveum, 2008AP658-CR (Wis. July 20, 2010), affg 2009 WI App 81, 319 Wis. 2d 498, 769 N.W.2d 53 (Ct. App. 2009): ¶2 Sveum and the State have briefed two issues for purposes of our review: (1) whether the installation of a GPS tracking device to Sveum's car while his car was parked in the driveway of his home and the subsequent electronic monitoring of Sveum's car using the GPS constituted a search or seizure within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 11 of the Wisconsin Constitution; and (2) whether the court order authorizing the installation and monitoring of a GPS tracking device on Sveum's vehicle constituted a valid warrant and, if so, whether the police reasonably executed the warrant...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on July 21, 2010 (boomark / email).