By james art For a cost of about $90,000, Forsyth County Sheriff’s deputies can get 10 GPS launchers to use during police pursuits.
Police can fire the tracker, which is about the size of a small soda can, from a vehicle-mounted air-launcher at the fleeing vehicle during a pursuit.
Once the arrow is stuck to the back of the car with hot glue, police track the vehicle via a GPS tag built into the device and arrest the suspect without the need for a dangerous chase that can often result in loss of life.
Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows that fatal police pursuits in North Carolina increased from nine in 2018 to 22 in 2022, the highest number of fatal police pursuits since 1996.
If commissioners decide to approve the contract, the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office could use 10 of the launch vehicles during a one-year trial run. Forsyth County will be the first county in North Carolina to use the technology in addition to several North Carolina cities such as Mooresville, North Carolina.
County commissioners appeared to show no overt opposition to approving the contract, although they did raise some practical questions about the launch vehicle.
“I try to think of someone who has an accident and is trying to fix their car,” County Board Chairman Don Martin said. “It’s like a fighter pilot there, I have a bit of a problem with that.”
The launcher has a range of about 22 feet and the boom will stick to the back of a vehicle with hot glue. Police can even release the device before making a traffic stop, or they can also hit a key object and automatically launch the GPS tracker from the car if the object starts to take off, according to Chris Clayton, regional business manager for StarChase.
“We also encourage agencies to use them for pre-suspension deployments,” Clayton said. “So when you think about an ALPR hit, a license plate reader hit, someone you know is potentially going to run from the police.”
ALPRs, or automated license plate readers, capture images of license plates and notify or “hit” law enforcement if the plate matches a wanted suspect or a stolen car, among other things. On its website, StarChase has a “4th Amendment” page that cites a 2014 ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) report defending the use of in-vehicle GPS tracking technology.
The Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution protects citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government.
Jay Stanley, the ACLU’s senior policy analyst and author of the report, wrote that he “sees no problem with this technology,” assuming it’s used “the way everyone probably imagines it’s being used.”
In other words, Stanley said the technology is acceptable if the device is used only in police pursuits that begin when an officer has the equivalent of probable cause for a violation, even if the suspect is simply fleeing a traffic stop and the officer doesn’t have time to get a warrant.
“Any other use of GPS tracking technology outside of the height of a pursuit must require a warrant,” Stanley wrote.
After the Journal reached out to Stanley for comment about the 2014 report cited by StarChase, the ACLU responded by saying it does not endorse surveillance products and that the organization has not authorized any marketing efforts that suggest otherwise.
“The ACLU’s documented statements on this matter should not be construed as an endorsement of a particular brand or type of product,” the organization wrote in a statement. “We haven’t focused on Starchase for quite some time, but in general the ACLU is always concerned about law enforcement’s use of surveillance technology.”
Alise Bertenthal, a professor at Wake Forest University School of Law and an expert on criminal law and procedure, said the use of GPS trackers before initiating a traffic stop could raise Fourth Amendment concerns.
“The general rule is that any search requires a warrant, but some exceptions allow police to search without a warrant,” Bertenthal said. “Most relevant to the situation here, police may act without a warrant when immediate action appears reasonably necessary to protect or preserve life or avoid serious injury, and that includes pursuing a criminal suspect, even if that requires entering spaces ( such as a home) this usually requires a warrant to authorize entry.”
Exceptions that would allow a warrantless police search are usually defined as “exigent circumstances.” StarChase said in a statement that its GPS tracking technology is intended for short-term, urgent circumstances, such as when police officers are trying to prevent criminal suspects from fleeing.
Bertenthal said whether urgency makes a warrantless search reasonable or not depends on the circumstances, such as the type of crime the person is suspected of committing.
James Perry, CEO of the Winston-Salem Urban League, an organization that empowers and advocates for African-Americans and other disenfranchised communities, said the overall goal of the technology, keeping deputies and the community safer than are, is commendable.
“As long as that’s the goal being accomplished, that’s a good thing,” Perry said.
Perry added that he is wary that any tool can be used in a negative way, but also said that so far, Forsyth County Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough has given the community no reason to be concerned about the use of tools that would threaten the rights of the citizens of unreasonable search and seizure.
“It must be used in a way that enhances safety and does not infringe on constitutional rights to privacy,” Perry said.
StarChase also states in the proposed contract documents that its real-time mapping data can be downloaded to the agency’s servers for “indefinite historical record retention” and that the historical tracking record is protected for later analysis and judicial admissibility.
Under North Carolina law, analysis records must be kept until they are “superseded” or “obsolete,” after which they are destroyed. This applies to intelligence reports, investigative reports, surveillance and other related records.
StarChase GPS trackers are used across the country with various law enforcement agencies and the company recently signed a distribution partnership in the UK. The company also sells a hand-held GPS launcher based on an AR-15 rifle that can fire a sticky tracker at moving vehicles from 10 to 40 feet away.
Forsyth County Commissioners will vote on the one-year contract at a meeting Thursday, Nov. 7.