It is fairly common knowledge that the police can use the GPS system to find a criminal, whether he is driving a stolen vehicle with a vehicle tracking device or has kidnapped a child who is wearing a tracking device. Now, it turns out, the police can be found with GPS too. They are keeping tabs on each other, and it’s not just for safety – it’s also to make sure they are doing their jobs.

Because they failed to correctly parole their area, Officers David Muniz and Matthew Prince were charged in Cleveland this week by their department because they were clearly not doing their job. They had been sent on April 5 to investigate reports of a dead body on I-90. They drove past the body and reported that it was a deer. Later, the body was found to be that of Angel Bradley Crockett, a murder victim.

The officers’ patrol car was equipped with a vehicle tracking device. A closer look at the GPS record shows that they never slowed when passing the body, and they sat in a cemetery the majority of the night. Other Cleveland patrol cars, EMS vehicles, and fire trucks are also equipped with vehicle tracking devices. Cleveland Safety Director Martin Flask says the system will be used even more thoroughly in the future, to prevent similar incidences from occurring.

Vehicle tracking devices use the GPS satellite system to log the movements of vehicles. They can be used to pinpoint the current location of the vehicle, or to see the history of the vehicle’s movements. They have all kinds of uses. Parents use them to keep tabs on teenage drivers; they can see where their teen is and whether they are driving too fast. Many employers use them to make sure their employees are going where they are supposed to go, driving safely, and driving efficiently. This includes trucking and shipping companies and any other company whose employees do a lot of traveling for work.

Cleveland is not the only city that uses GPS to track vehicles. The approach has typically been to use GPS to keep dispatchers aware of where everyone is and allow emergency teams to work efficiently and safely. Now cities may find another purpose for using vehicle tracking devices – keeping city employees accountable to their jobs.

Read more about GPS Tracking Devices on my blog.

Some important trends to watch for in GPS Tracking devices are listed here.  These trends and movement towards more tracking can be viewed either positively or negatively, depending upon your outlook.

Personal Monitoring. We are witnessing more electronic devices that are intended for tracking as they infiltrate our society.  These include GPS enabled smart phones, small unobtrusive personal tracking devices that can be hidden easily, vehicular tracking devices, watches and more.  With the footprint of tracking devices getting smaller, their integration into more things will grow.  Small power consumption allows them to stay active for days between charges, too.

Tracking Things. With the global economy in a mess, people are getting desperate and are turning to thievery to get things they want and need.  GPS Tracking systems are being placed throughout the world to monitor things like shipment of products and large expensive assets that are motorized and/or mobile.  Many businesses with significant investment in assets understand how important this is becoming as a daily activity for them.  Desperate people often do not think through what they are doing, so a simple active tracking device is all that is needed to ensure that expensive items are able to be located within minutes of a theft.

Tracking and the Law. More court systems are turning to GPS Tracking to help mete out sentences to those who are convicted of crimes (often theft, etc).  Since prison populations are swelling and the cost of incarceration growing at mammoth proportions, GPS Tracking can offer less expensive home detention style sentences that allows a person to serve out a sentence while still remaining in society and being productive at a job.  Also, it helps reduce the chances that they will return to jail.

We live in a time that demands that those who own things keep a closer eye on them to help prevent or mitigate damage from theft.  GPS Tracking provides a way to do this in an inexpensive fashion.  For just a few hundred dollars (and really less than that), you can know where your important things are and if there is a problem with theft.  Security systems for houses have their place, but a GPS Tracking device attached to expensive items that are stolen will help recover them in hours, not days, weeks, months, or possibly never.

GPS Tracking gives you what you need to add a good measure of peace of mind to your life.

Read more about GPS Tracking Devices on my blog.