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Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

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Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#181

Post by duncan-donuts »

tomc1985 wrote: post #153
worik wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Golly.I read that article. What a hideous person. Who drives so fast on country roads? Very selfish people who do not care about their own lives let alone the lives of others. What a good punishment! Much better than a fine. We should use short prison sentences much more for the sorts of crimes rich privileged reprobates like this do. Then the winging! It seems gaol is not pleasant. Does the writer want sympathy? Non…

The 101 through Sonoma/Humboldt/Mendocino counties is, at some places, a 2-lane highway weaving its way through a twisty curvy Redwood forest at 55-65mph, and up to 75mph when it's a six-lane highway. And here in Southern California I regularly get away with 80-85mph in front of CA highway patrol. Most places I've been to in the US seem to consider 5-10 over the limit to be acceptable. I have even heard of freeways i…

There are a few stretches of highway near Austin that have 80 posted and people absolutely fly on that road. I was in a shitty rental trying to do 80 and people were passing me like I was driving slow. It was wild

Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#182

Post by jfk13 »

alistairSH wrote: post #173
jfk13 wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's the top few percentile that you need to restrain, not the masses And how do you propose to "restrain" them, if not by enforcing a speed limit?

I don’t think anybody is arguing speed limits should be abolished. At least not in any general sense. But, it’s plain enough to see that speed limits on some roads are wrong. I-495 in VA is a prime example. It’s posted at 55mph and traffic regularly flows faster (or slower, during rush hour). It really needs variable limits based on traffic volume instead of a dumb 55.

Dylan16807's comment about

> If you replace speed limits with "go a safe speed"...

sounded to me like a suggestion that speed limits could be abolished in favour of a "use your judgement" rule, which I don't think is a sensible idea.

Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#183

Post by kube-system »

542458 wrote: post #171
kube-system wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I understand it is mostly handled by the chipset firmware these days, and no options are available to disable it because it is a legal requirement. But even if you were able to disable the functionality, the carriers towers can triangulate you.

Hmm. Re: chipset firmware, the GPS chip and the cellular modem are typically separate and not directly connected, right? So doesn’t that mean there is necessarily something in the main phone software that’s handling passing GPS data from the gps to the modem chip on-demand from the modem firmware?

I believe it is pretty common for LTE modems to include GNSS support these days. I know many modems for even for data-only applications do. And it sounds like Qualcomm does it on their phone modems from this description: https://www.qualcomm.com/news/onq/2021/07/27/qualcomm-locati...

Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#184

Post by matthewdgreen »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #80
randombits0 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s what the warrant requirement is all about, that’s where it’s broken. This technique should only be used for major felonies. On the flip side, if you want to commit major felonies, don’t take your phone!

> technique should only be used for major felonies Doesn’t the crime they were pursuing, dealing heroin in connection with an overdose, rise to that level? (No comment on the merits of the law. Just the facts of the investigation.)

The article says the police didn't describe the man as a suspect in the warrant application. By this logic, the police could investigate any acquaintance of someone even peripherally involved in a crime (which is a huge chunk of the population.)

Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#185

Post by testbjjl »

eganist wrote: post #10
hammock wrote: post #6

Chesterfield County, Va. can be generally understood as one of the most, if not the most, pro-cop (densely populated) counties in the whole country. You don’t want to be arrested there Edit: not sure the reason for the downvotes, this fact is useful context and first-hand

Virginia as a whole has some pretty absurdly pro police laws, at least re: driving. The lesser of either 20 over the speed limit or any speed over ~80~ 85 miles an hour (thanks jmisavage) in Virginia is a misdemeanor, and at least one auto journalist has been jailed in Virginia. https://jalopnik.com/never-speed-in-virginia-lessons-from-my... It's also the only state to prohibit radar detectors.

I once got a ticket from a Virginia state trooper for driving in the HOV restricted lanes, with two passengers in a two seater. I took the ticket (like there is a choice) thinking I would go to court and contest. While looking for where to appear I came across the FAQ stating no exceptions for two passenger vehicles in the HOV. Nothing illegal, just feels wrongheaded in public safety and service are the priorities of the organization.

Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#186

Post by spacemanmatt »

hailwren wrote: post #112
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> judicial elections are needed These aren’t a panacea. I’ve helped get judges elected in Manhattan. The primaries swung by tens of votes in some cases, usually no more than a few hundred. A few clubs, or one large tenant association, could decide the vote. (Counterfactual: judicial elections attract disproportionately-informed voters if they happen off cycle and without party affiliations, which in the context of pr…

Judicial elections also directly introduce lobbying into the judicial branch. Successful judges now have to pay for their campaigns and more money tends to equal more success in elections.

I do prefer appointments for judges, and I prefer those appointments to expire after the elected official's term would end. I believe typically this is 4 years for elected and 6 for appointed.

Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#187

Post by dredmorbius »

orthoxerox wrote: post #166
Rufhfhs3747rhe7 wrote: post #138

Why are drug dealers still using an easily trackable phone number for communication? Why not a 3rd party messaging and voice app like Matrix/Element? Am I incorrect in assuming that local police would not be able to easily track it?

Most criminals aren't very smart.

Most criminals who are caught aren't very smart.

Sampling bias in the extreme.

Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#188

Post by stefan_ »

1123581321 wrote: post #159
woodruffw wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speed limits are a blunt instrument, because "slow" isn't the real goal: the goal is to get people to drive safely , and one way they currently don't do that is by driving at reckless speeds (regardless of what the limit happens to be.)

You don’t know which speeds are actually reckless. Using speed limits to inform your opinion is circular. It depends on the design and condition of the road, the quality and features of the car, and traffic, weather and environmental conditions.

Well we have the stats and at 30mph already a pedestrian has a low chance of survival. So there is a perfectly good case to be made that just exceeding 20mph is reckless. Maybe we just limit cars there, then at least we are not "circularly informed", whatever that means.

Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#189

Post by lucb1e »

orthoxerox wrote: post #166
Rufhfhs3747rhe7 wrote: post #138

Why are drug dealers still using an easily trackable phone number for communication? Why not a 3rd party messaging and voice app like Matrix/Element? Am I incorrect in assuming that local police would not be able to easily track it?

Most criminals aren't very smart.

A common response to why criminals sometimes do stupid things, but I haven't actually ever seen this substantiated.

Re: Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones

#190

Post by root_axis »

warning26 wrote: post #137
woodruffw wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am someone who's extraordinarily sympathetic to journalists. But I don't think there's really any excuse for going 93 miles an hour on a country road marked for 55, as this author did. Should he have been sent to jail for it? I don't think so. But it's remarkable how acceptable that behavior seems to be.

Eh, I don't think speed limits really should exist in any context. If you want people to go slow, design the roads for slower driving, don't just impose arbitrary limits.

Virginia has a lot of deer, especially on interstate roads flanked by forest - 90mph is a death wish when one of these deer pop into your path.
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