Thank you for the reply! What you tell me is quite similar to what I read in the page I cited above, and it makes sense, but since I couldn't find another place where I could confirm it, I decided better ask here.
A cell phone was the logical choice, and my second option (if the GPS one couldn't be done) but thanks for point me out a court order is needed, since I didn't knew that either.
Although technically a court order would be needed in the US, with the Patriot Act much is done without warrants in the name of "saving us from terrorists."
A GPS works in the same way as a radio, it receives signals from transmitters, that's all. The police wouldn't be able to find you if you were listening to a radio, but they would be able to find you if you were running a radio station. GPSs don't have transmitters, so there's not way of tracing them.
If you want tracking-by-technology, it's more likely that someone's position could be traced via the places where their mobile phone got signal. Of course, if they were trying to hide from the police, they would probably know about this and keep the phone switched off, or buy a new one....
Thank you! As I said above, I'm going with the cell phone option, since the people whose phone I'm interested in tracking for this fic don't know they are being traked/followed.
I have a tack-on question/thought for you. I have On-Star in my vehicles, but have never activated the service. Nevertheless, when I got T-boned, a woman started asking through the On-Star if I was all right and told me she had notified emergency services of my location. Police arrived nearly immediately, and the fire truck was there in less than five (the station is around the corner). I'm wondering if law enforcement can present a warrant to a service like On-Star to keep track of a certain vehicle's location at all times.
They can, according to their web site. The FAQ for this says in part:
in the limited circumstances listed below, the location and approximate GPS (global positioning satellite) speed of your car: when there is a request for service made from inside your car (for example when you request driving directions); when there is an airbag deployment or automatic crash response (so we can inform emergency service providers); when there is a request for Stolen Vehicle Assistance (to assist law enforcement in the recovery of your car); when needed to protect the safety of you or others (for example, to locate a missing person); when needed by us or our suppliers for our quality, research or troubleshooting purposes; or as may be required by law.
Cars do not (yet, at least!) come fitted with GPS devices. SatNav (GPS) devices can be freely swapped between cars.
Therefore, the answer to your question is no, if the detective only knows the car's registration number, he cannot track its GPS device, because any GPS device there may be is not in any way related to the registration number.
Presumably you bought it and installed it at some point - maybe that was enough.
edit - Meant to add that On-Star appears to be a lot more than a basic satnav system - it's monitoring vehicle instruments etc, includes some sort of cellphone, etc.
But I got my first satnav over the counter in a car accessory shop, the second on eBay. There is no way ownership could be linked to either of the two motorbikes I used them on.
Okay, it appears that some cars do in fact come equipped with GPS devices. (Damn, the future overtook me when I wasn't looking!) But if the character in question is not driving a fairly new GM vehicle, it will not have OnStar and will not be trackable.
This is based on my having used a similar trick in a novel of mine. This is, to the best of my recollection, what my own technical expert told me.
A GPS device is a receiver, not a transmitter. It receives satellite information, translates that into the specifics of its own location, and shows that information on a screen. This can't be tracked by anyone.
Why not?
There's nothing to track. The unit does not transmit or broadcast. It's a receiver.
If you want to be able to track it, someone must add a transmitter to the device. Add that, and it can send the same information (where I am, right now) to anyone, making tracking easy. But that function is not built into the GPS itself.
Though the option of add a transmitter, as you say, sound interesting and I would have liked to use it, on this fic, the car of the person I want to track is already on the move, so nothing can be added to track it :)
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You're better off looking at phones etc. which do often have GPS chips, and can be activated remotely (but it takes a court order)
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A cell phone was the logical choice, and my second option (if the GPS one couldn't be done) but thanks for point me out a court order is needed, since I didn't knew that either.
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A GPS works in the same way as a radio, it receives signals from transmitters, that's all. The police wouldn't be able to find you if you were listening to a radio, but they would be able to find you if you were running a radio station. GPSs don't have transmitters, so there's not way of tracing them.
If you want tracking-by-technology, it's more likely that someone's position could be traced via the places where their mobile phone got signal. Of course, if they were trying to hide from the police, they would probably know about this and keep the phone switched off, or buy a new one....
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in the limited circumstances listed below, the location and approximate GPS (global positioning satellite) speed of your car:
when there is a request for service made from inside your car (for example when you request driving directions);
when there is an airbag deployment or automatic crash response (so we can inform emergency service providers);
when there is a request for Stolen Vehicle Assistance (to assist law enforcement in the recovery of your car);
when needed to protect the safety of you or others (for example, to locate a missing person);
when needed by us or our suppliers for our quality, research or troubleshooting purposes; or
as may be required by law.
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Therefore, the answer to your question is no, if the detective only knows the car's registration number, he cannot track its GPS device, because any GPS device there may be is not in any way related to the registration number.
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edit - Meant to add that On-Star appears to be a lot more than a basic satnav system - it's monitoring vehicle instruments etc, includes some sort of cellphone, etc.
But I got my first satnav over the counter in a car accessory shop, the second on eBay. There is no way ownership could be linked to either of the two motorbikes I used them on.
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A GPS device is a receiver, not a transmitter. It receives satellite information, translates that into the specifics of its own location, and shows that information on a screen. This can't be tracked by anyone.
Why not?
There's nothing to track. The unit does not transmit or broadcast. It's a receiver.
If you want to be able to track it, someone must add a transmitter to the device. Add that, and it can send the same information (where I am, right now) to anyone, making tracking easy. But that function is not built into the GPS itself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS
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Though the option of add a transmitter, as you say, sound interesting and I would have liked to use it, on this fic, the car of the person I want to track is already on the move, so nothing can be added to track it :)
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