Boston policemen complain about new plan to watch their movements
Boston policemen complain about new plan to watch their movements

                      
                      
          It looks like Boston’s Finest is going to be watched by its own. As the result of new contract negotiations between the City of Boston and the Boston Police Department, police cruisers will potentially be outfitted with GPS devices designed to monitor how cop cars move around the city. The contract includes some additional changes and still needs to be approved by the Boston City Council.
According to the Boston Globe, this new move would put Boston “in league with small-town departments across the state and big-city agencies across the country that have installed global positioning systems in cruisers.”
The Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association did not immediately respond to Ars’ request for comment.
What’s the logic to putting in such a tracking system? It lets dispatchers know where officers are in real time rather than having them wait for a response via radio. Unsurprisingly, some cops don’t like the new change.
“No one likes it. Who wants to be followed all over the place?” said one officer who spoke anonymously to the Globe because department rules forbid police from speaking to the media without authorization. “If I take my cruiser and I meet [reluctant witnesses] to talk, eventually they can follow me and say, 'Why were you in a back dark street for 45 minutes?' It’s going to open up a can of worms that can’t be closed.”
The “Eye of Sauron” never sleeps?
Not surprisingly, civil libertarians are relishing the rank and file's own backlash.
"The irony of police objecting to GPS technology for privacy reasons is hard to miss in the aftermath of United States v. Jones," Woodrow Hartzog, a law professor at the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University, told Ars. "But the officers’ concerns about privacy illustrate just how revealing GPS technology can be. Departments are going to have to confront the chilling effect this surveillance might have on police behavior. On one hand, police departments are likely to see a reduction in many kinds of undesirable behaviors involving an abuse of discretion. However, as we’ve seen in other areas involving continuous and precise surveillance, individuals are likely to refrain from any activities that could be perceived the wrong way, even if they are ultimately legal and socially desirable. Police departments should be very clear about how the GPS technology is to be used and what administrators expect from police officers."

          
                      
                  