Big Brother Is Watching the Po-Po, Too

By Alicia Dorr in News on Oct 2, 2007 7:01PM

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.