GPS devices aid task force in drug cases

New technology has made equipment more reliable

FAYETTEVILLE — Investigators with the 4th Judicial Drug Task Force said they have used GPS tracking devices more often over the past two years to build cases against drug traffickers in Northwest Arkansas.

“It’s not that there wasn’t a need before,” said Sgt. Jason French, task force supervisor. “It’s just that we got trackers that were more beneficial to the investigations.”

The devices are used in about 10 cases a year in Fayetteville, French said. Police agency spokesmen said they don’t keep exact numbers.

GPS devices are attached to the inside or outside of vehicles and allow investigators to track suspects without physically following them, officers said. New technology has made the devices better for investigations, including longer battery life, the ability to log and store information to computers and send locations to cellphones in real time, French said.

The task force is among the few law enforcement agencies in Northwest Arkansas to use tracking devices, spokesmen said. Many agencies opted out of using the devices after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2012 a search warrant is required for use, said Gene Page, Bentonville Police Department spokesman.

A GPS search warrant requires probable cause be shown, or sufficient reason investigators believe the property is connected to a crime. A judge reviews and signs the warrant.

The ruling was meant to protect people’s Fourth

Amendment rights, said Holly Dickson, staff lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas. The amendment protects residents from unreasonable search and seizure of property and arbitrary arrests.

“(Investigators) are more interested in making their cases than risking having their evidence excluded,” Dickson said.

Investigators follow the rules set up in the search warrants, French and others said. That includes time-limit restraints, according to courthouse documents. A sampling of search warrants filed at the Washington County Circuit Clerk’s Office between April 2015 and February show task force investigators tracked suspects for about two weeks or less.

“We don’t want to invade people’s privacy,” French said. “But we do want to use (GPS) as an investigative tool.”

The devices have been used by Northwest Arkansas agencies for at least a decade, but since the Supreme Court ruling, investigators have to consider if the information they could get from a device is worth it, Page said.

The devices are not used for investigations in Washington County or Bentonville, spokesmen there said.

Springdale has only one older device, spokesman Lt. Derek Wright wrote in email. Rogers also has only one device, police spokesman Keith Foster wrote in email. Wright and Foster both said they did not have a list of when the devices had been used. But GPS devices are rarely used in Rogers, if at all, Foster said.

“Due to those court rulings regarding the use of GPS devices, the Rogers Police Department has all but phased out the use of such devices,” Foster wrote. “If we were to use one, it would only be used for specific criminal investigative purposes and in conjunction with a court order.”

Benton County did not provide a number of devices the agency has, but spokeswoman Keshia Guyll wrote in email GPS tracking is used about three times a year.

Fayetteville has two devices, French said. Occasionally, both are in use simultaneously, he said.

GPS tracking devices provide perks for an investigation, Guyll and French said.

The task force doesn’t have the manpower to follow suspects day and night, French said. The devices also lower the chance of a suspect seeing investigators and becoming suspicious, which could harm the case, he said.

Investigators use the tracking for all kinds of cases, not just those involving drugs, Wright said.

“The devices are an investigative tool,” Wright said. “They’re important because they provide an additional resource or piece to help solve the ‘puzzle.’”

Guyll said she knew about an arson case where tracking allowed investigators to find out the suspect was near the scene of the crime on several occasions. The suspect was nearby minutes before the fire, she said. The man was convicted and is serving a 30-year prison sentence, she said.

GPS devices help solve drug cases, too, French said. The devices are typically a small part of a larger investigation that gets handed over for prosecution, said Dave Bercaw, Washington County deputy prosecuting attorney.

“I think where (GPS devices) are useful is in the investigative phase of the case and just being able to know where the suspect is,” Bercaw said. “It’s just another piece of evidence.”

Bercaw handles many drug cases and has seen a couple that included evidence gathered via GPS devices. That information doesn’t hurt prosecution, but the information is more helpful for investigators to put a case together, he said.

The way drugs come into Northwest Arkansas has changed over the past five years, French said. Methamphetamine used to be mostly from homemade drug labs. Now, most meth is imported from outside the area, he said.

“We certainly haven’t gotten rid of the meth problem, just changed where it’s coming from,” French said.

A Feb. 16 search warrant in Washington County allowed a device be placed on a vehicle in an ongoing methamphetamine investigation, said Sgt. Craig Stout, Fayetteville police spokesman. It logged regular trips from the River Valley to Northwest Arkansas.

The GPS devices can help investigators break up drug operations, French said.

“We only put these on vehicles we believe to be involved in drug trafficking,” French said.