Re:Cops put GPS tracker on man’s car, charge him with theft ...
by JohnFen on Monday November 18, 2019 @07:30PM
(#21569665)
> A lawyer for the government acknowledged that it wouldn't be theft to remove a tracking device put there by a private party. But he argued that things are different when the government has a warrant to use a tracking device. The device had a legal basis for being on the car, the lawyer argued. By removing it and preventing tracking, Heuring was depriving the government of the use of its property.
In order for that argument to make any rational sense at all (and we're talking about the law here, so "rational sense" doesn't necessarily enter into it), the police should have to label the device with a property tag identifying it as belonging to the police.
If it's impossible to tell if a device is from a jilted lover or from the cops, then saying the removing it in one case is OK but in the other is not is effectively saying that it's never OK to remove it.
In order for that argument to make any rational sense at all (and we're talking about the law here, so "rational sense" doesn't necessarily enter into it), the police should have to label the device with a property tag identifying it as belonging to the police.
If it's impossible to tell if a device is from a jilted lover or from the cops, then saying the removing it in one case is OK but in the other is not is effectively saying that it's never OK to remove it.