GPS Violates 12yo Girl’s Privacy — And Traps Her Murderer
As I have mentioned a number of times, a semi-depressing fact of life with this blog is the number of searched that I get regarding the defeating of GPS tracking, the legalities … grasping at straws to find ways to make GPS tracking of vehicles on public highways illegal … and handwriting about the rights of privacy of employees who don’t chose to do their jobs or spouses who feel that their vows of fidelity mean nothing.
Here’s a sad story that puts privacy into a strong light. Properly used it could have saved an innocent young girl’s life. As is, it at least trapped her murderer.
All readers, of course, are privileged to hold you own views and beliefs, but I urge you to read this report in full and think through exactly who had their privacy violated here, and why the suspect would have truly justified his supposed ‘right to privacy’?
What appeared to be a tragic accident in the early hours of July 8th,
2007, turned into possible murder as the LandAirSea GPS Tracking Key
provided unprecedented evidence for the Chenango County Sheriff’s
Department. George Ford Jr., 42, of Piscataway, N.J., told police he was
taking their babysitter, 12-year old Shyanne Somers, home the night of July
7th but took a detour to show her some horses. He then claimed that he
accidentally ran her over as he turned his truck around on a rural road in
central New York.Chenango County Sheriff Thomas Loughren said that Ford’s routes of
travel, times and speed were all recorded by the LandAirSea
(http://www.landairsea.com) GPS Tracking Key that Ford’s wife had installed
a few days earlier because she suspected he was having an affair. "Wherever
he drove; the locations, the roads, the times, the speed — it’s all in
there," Loughren said in an interview…. full report here.
I’m particularly glad to see this report came directly from one of our advertisers/sponsors here at the GPS ROI tracking blog. LandAirSea is truly an innovator in this business and their products can fill many needs. In this case it’s sad that the perpetrator’s wife felt the need to track her husband, and that the situation turned out as tragic as it did.
But if you have any suspicion about a loved one or partner … think of this … at least the woman won’t spend the rest of her life with a murderer and likely child molester.
let me add one point from the other side of this situation. If I had occasion to transport young girls, with no other adult along, I personally would love to have a GPS on my vehicle. It just provides a much better level of safety, either for the children, or for the driver who could, after all, be the victim of suspicion that is unfounded. But if an older man and a 12 you girl were to go missing in the year 2008, how long do you think it would be before the word "pedophile" or ‘child abuser’ came to the forefront … and whose word would be believed, hmm?