A Real-Time Donation

Holliston Police Receive Live Tracking System

Many police departments have had to absorb massive cutbacks due to the current economic situation plaguing the nation, and no department understands this more than the Holliston Police Department in Massachusetts. Unable to receive funding from the city or state for high-tech tools, the Holliston Police Department had no way of being able to afford some of the most widely used surveillance gadgets by other police forces. However, that all changed when a GPS tracking system company decided to be charitable and donate a real-time tracking device to the Holliston Police, allowing the small Massachusetts law enforcement agents to become more effective at their jobs.

GPS tracking devices are assets to police departments because the systems allow law enforcement agents to monitor potential criminals without placing a uniformed officer in danger, or paying a officer costly overtime pay.

Technology Helps Men In Blue

Battling Crime With Tracking Systems

GPS tracking devices have so many functions these days that it can be hard to keep track of all the ways that they can be used. Many people know that vehicle tracking devices can save law enforcement officials hours and hours of time tracking down stolen cars and bank robbers, because the tracking systems give them the exact location of the missing goods. However, many people don’t realize that these same GPS tracking systems can help to keep police officers save as well.

Real time GPS tracking systems send out signals at regular intervals (some every second) to a satellite. These signals give the exact location of the device and the speed and direction at which it is traveling. All of this information can easily be viewed on a computer. Maps with this information can show the path that the device has taken throughout the day. Real time GPS trackers can be used in more ways than passive systems, which have to be retrieved and plugged into a computer if the information from the system is to be viewed and used. However, both of these systems are very advanced. They have long battery lives and give very precise and accurate readings.

Recovering Stolen Items

Police Tools Becoming Tools For Consumers

Even with expensive locks, cutting edge alarm systems, and anti-theft devices, homes and cars are still broken into. More often than not, families and individuals find themselves losing expensive, irreplaceable possessions. After such an experience, theft victims have two dilemmas. One, how do they retrieve their stolen valuables? And two, how do they find the culprit who stole them? Not long ago, these two difficulties had limited solutions. Police had to track criminals down using unclear clues and other, less stable types of evidence.

Today, both problems can have the same, easy answer. While the traditional methods of clues and evidence still apply in today’s world, a new and sometimes more reliable means of tracking and finding criminals and stolen goods exists. If you are facing a theft situation, GPS tracking devices can both help the police find your stolen possessions as well as assist them in tracking down the thieves.

For example, this winter, police were able to track down two criminals, Jeffrey M. Rice and Steven A. Glanz, who were accused of breaking into almost 300 cars to steal items such as laptops and cell phones. Investigators placed a GPS tracking device into Glanz’s car and therefore gathered enough information to indict Rice and Glanz.

GPS Tracking Device Leads To Quick Arrest

Philadelphia Police GPS Track Bank Robber

Police agencies are no strangers to the advantages that GPS tracking and monitoring tools can provide in the battle on crime, and after a bank robbery occurred in a PNC Bank in Philadelphia that notion was reinforced again.

After a man walked into a local Philadelphia PNC Bank branch, he spoke with a bank teller and then handed the bank employee a note that  said he wanted her to hand over a bag of cash. Not wanting to escalate the situation, the bank teller placed a bunch of cash into a bag and handed the money to the bank robber. However, the quick-thinking bank teller also placed a GPS tracking system in the bag, allowing police to follow the cash in real-time.

After the bank robber walked out of the bank and fled the scene in a taxi cab, the police officers arriving at the scene of the crime were informed of the GPS tracker that was placed in the bait money. Once the law enforcement team accessed the GPS tracking data they were able to quickly find and arrest the man.

The police arrested the bank robber in Center City around noon without any protest or incident, according to a statement released by the police.

Source: CBS News