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In an effort to increase safety for officers on the job and to address concerns about police misconduct, some cops in Chicago Lawn will soon carry cell phones with GPS tracking.
A group of 50 officers in the city's largest district will soon be tracked by their superiors in real time as a part of a 30-day pilot program that the department hopes to expand to the entire city. Department officials want to be able to better supervise employees in and out of the squad car, but they admit that a main reason for testing it out is to see if officers will accept it.
Some officers view it as going too far and infringing unnecessarily on their privacy and also fear the tracking devices may be used by their superiors as leverage in squabbles. Also mentioned was the fact that they probably wouldn't be able to leave their district anymore for food while on duty. As good a reason as that is, it looks like officers in a cop car near you will probably be tracked by GPS in the near future.
Image via chicagopolice.org.
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Hmm. I wonder if the public will get the 5-0's tracking data mapped to a google map. I wonder where they spend most of their time...
I don't really see how this will prevent the shakedowns, illegal drug schemes, needless shootings and bar beatings that some Chicago cops seem to be so attracted to these days.
Though at least we will know when they are at the Dunkin' Donuts.
I can understand how officer privacy would be in issue if they carried these phones off the clock. However, I don't see what police officers on the clock should need to be private about. It won't be broadcasting their inner most feelings, just a location. At that location they could be still acting inappropriately (as matty mentioned), but they could also be making a routine traffic stop. Either way their superiors could use the information to track what neighborhoods need more patrols (on average) and what squad car is the nearest to a certain location (called in from a 911).
I bet you could spend all day watching a real-time Google Map of CPD car locations. I know I would. It'd be fascinating to see.
Well, so long as it was provided and required for every unit it would be interesting.
You'd might be surprised how much a car chase or 10-1 in 011 (Harrison) or 007 (Englewood) resembles a scene from the Blues Brothers. This might actually be interesting enough for some to get scanners.
Alas, this information will never be made public in real-time or comprehensively retrospectively. The CPD does not want criminals (e.g., bank robbers or drug dealers) to know where the police are, or to know patrol patterns (e.g., shortages) at any particular time and place.
It would, nevertheless, be a great tool for supervisors and dispatchers to track their resources.