Surveillance is an important element of investigation and crime prevention for law enforcement agencies. Technology booms, particularly related to global positioning system (GPS) capabilities, are making more surveillance options available to more users, including police departments of all sizes.

As is often the case following rapid technological advances, the legal system—and society as a whole—has been forced to play catch-up on GPS, particularly as it pertains to law enforcement and public safety.

As legal questions, and the technologies themselves continue to evolve, many police are making use of new surveillance technologies—GPS-based and otherwise—to increase vigilance and serve as a force multiplier. And they’re not as expensive as one might think.

GPS: A Hot Topic

In a law enforcement context, two general uses of GPS have emerged: “bait” operations and direct surveillance.

A bait operation typically involves affixing a small, GPS-equipped device to an item police believe is at high risk of theft. This could be anything from a medicine bottle to a bicycle. Generally speaking, it has been ruled that this kind of program does not constitute entrapment on the part of law enforcement.

Direct surveillance, however, can be trickier legal ground. In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of United States v. Jones that police must obtain a warrant before using GPS to track a suspect and that failure to do so violates the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which safeguards against illegal searches and seizures.¹

Those who manufacture GPS-equipped devices for bait programs all point to their ability to reduce the number of man-hours the average agency needs to track criminals and prevent or stop crime. GPS bait devices, which automatically activate when moved, alert officers to theft without forcing them to be physically near the bike or other bait item as they wait for a theft to occur.

“You can use it as a bait, be it a bike or a bale of hay. It can be something on the side of the road,” said George Karonis, CEO of LiveViewGPS Inc., a Valencia, California, seller of GPS trackers and related equipment. “You let the item get taken, then you get notified and you can intercept it.”²

LiveView offers various products; chief among them is the Live Trac PT-10. At a cost of $199, PT-10 updates every 10 seconds when moving over 10 mph and every 20 feet when under 10 mph. The standard battery on the PT-10 lasts 10 “motion hours,” as the battery shuts down when not moving to extend its life. The PT-10 Professional, at a cost of $348, builds on the standard PT-10 with an external battery that extends battery life to 100 hours of motion.

In the case of either device, end users can access and track the PT with any web-enabled computer or mobile device. According to Karonis, the PT-10 line saves “quite a lot” of time and manpower.

“Our device updates fairly quickly and fairly regularly, and you can track it anywhere you have the Internet,” Karonis said. “So, unless you need to see everything the suspect is doing, you can hang back loosely and follow where he is on your phone. It makes surveillance easier than having to guess or call out where the suspect is.”³

Similarly, the Electronic Satellite Pursuit (ESP), manufactured by Pennsylvania-based 3SI Security Systems, is another popular GPS tracking device used by the law enforcement sector. For approximately $450 apiece, departments receive what could be viewed as a team of tiny, 24/7 patrols. Originally designed as a means of tracking large bundles of cash in the event of robbery, ESPs are now used in various operations. According to company data, 50,000 ESP devices are in use worldwide, achieving a 70 percent apprehension rate along the way.

Looking and Listening

Anonymity is critical for plainclothes officers in the field, particularly those working in known gang territories, but so, too, is their ability to listen in on the radio. The Los Angeles, California, Police Department (LAPD) had an idea on how their officers could fulfill both needs.

“They wanted surveillance kits to fit on a Motorola radio but that looked like ear buds that you would use with a phone or iPod,” said Dave George, president of Pryme Radio Products, a Brea, California, manufacturer of two-way radios. The result was the CEL-QD1, an adapter that allows iPhone earbuds and other general consumer headset accessories to connect to two-way radios. “They [the officers] blended in much better on the street. We made them [the adapters] special for them [the officers],” explained George.⁴

It’s just one of many radio and accessory products Pryme creates for the public safety community. The difference between Pryme and its competitors, George said, is that Pryme controls design and manufacturing, maximizing flexibility for clients like the LAPD, which are aiming to create something specialized from whole cloth.

Pryme also offers a range of ready-made products, all of which are engineered, designed, assembled, and tested in the United States using components from U.S. vendors. Ranging from $27 to $70 apiece, Pryme surveillance kits are designed to maximize quality while minimizing profile.

Technology advances also mean better listening capabilities—and the ability to conceal devices more thoroughly to avoid detection, according to Ted Vornbrock, founder and president of Blueline Sensors, a Maryland-based designer of sensors and other products for U.S. government and industry clients.

One of their most popular products is the WASP2 Tactical Contact Microphone for SWAT units and crisis negotiators. Using magnets, suction cups, and simple adhesive, the WASP2 can quickly and cleanly mount just about anywhere, while providing a very sensitive instrument for listening through walls.

“Tactical negotiators can determine when it’s best to enter, so there’s less risk,” Vornbrock said. “The mic has multiple ways of being mounted to a building surface. It gives you flexibility, while others can be a little sloppy and not a reliable connection.”⁵

Blueline’s sensors can detect even whisper-level speech through thick walls, doors, windows, and floors, providing audio solutions for denied-access situations. The secret is that the microphone’s strain sensor microphone picks up more vibrations than standard microphone designs. This design also makes the WASP2 easier to conceal than other microphones.

“It’s extremely sensitive,” Vornbrock said. “It turns the partition into the diaphragm of a much larger mic… Devices can be embedded within a solid structure, so there’s no need for an air gap. There’s no need to drill a hole. You can embed it within a bait object or paste it into a wall and paint over it.”⁶

Another company, Vigilant Solutions, offers facial and license plate recognition software. Although not surveillance tools in the traditional sense, they help gather information, and they do so in an affordable way. Subscriptions start at less than $7,000 for agencies with less than 50 sworn officers, a company spokesman said. “We’re completely scalable for a small agency to the size of less than 10 sworn,” said Tom Joyce, vice president of product development for Vigilant Solutions.⁷

Vigilant provides fixed and released camera deployments. In the case of facial recognition, all deployments are integrated with a cloud-based recognition system that is pre-loaded with 16 million gallery images. Departments can then customize that gallery, adding their own local images to further tailor searches and increase the likelihood of a positive ID.

LEARN is Vigilant’s license plate recognition intelligence platform. Because it is a hosted solution, Vigilant experts handle the IT end of the program, meaning there are no special IT requirements for a department to set up and use the platform. According to Joyce, LEARN is an easy way to manage users and vehicle hotlists, query historical license plate reader data, and bring deeper knowledge to investigations. Analytics tools Stakeout and Locate Analysis allow investigators to seek and find patterns to help identify suspects and potential theft locations, and they’re all available in an easy-to-understand dashboard that can produce automated reports for command staff and others.

Within a few hours, Joyce said, the entire platform can be up and running. “You can be off to the races immediately,” he noted. “We strive for ease of use. Simple searches can get going with no training whatsoever, and deeper analytics take one or two hours of training, which we can do in person or online.”⁸

If an agency submits its “hot list” of license plates, LEARN produces hits on 16–21 percent of those vehicles in the first 30 days of use, Joyce said. “Hot-listed plates receive a hit not only within the community, but nationwide,” Joyce said. “Many of our police departments get out-of-state hits every day. It’s the perfect definition of what a force multiplier is.”⁹

With all the technology advances in recent years, customer service sometimes gets lost in the shuffle, as classically human enterprises become, increasingly, less human. That’s something vendors are mindful of, and it’s something they attempt to keep in mind even as devices continue to become more automatic.

“I think it’s service that differentiates you,” George said. “If you can take care of people, they will take care of you. If an officer’s kit fails, it’s critical to get it fixed. We don’t torture them with forms. We just send them another one. They care more about service than price.”¹⁰♦

Notes:

¹United States v. Jones, 565 U.S.__ (2012).

²George Karonis (CEO, LiveViewGPS, Inc.), telephone interview, November 14, 2016.

³Ibid.

⁴Dave George (president, Pryme Radio Products), telephone interview, November 14, 2016.

⁵Ted Vornbrock (founder and president, Blueline Sensors), telephone interview, November 11, 2016.

⁶Ibid.

⁷Tom Joyce (vice president, product development, Vigilant Solutions), telephone interview, November 21, 2016.

⁸Ibid.

⁹Ibid.

¹⁰George, telephone interview, November 17, 2016.