Subject: [NEXTEL-1] GPS Abuse Stokes Stalking Worries

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 07 Feb 2003 13:20:29 -0500

GPS Abuse Stokes Stalking Worries
Thu Feb 6, 2:02 AM ET

By KEVIN ORLAND, Associated Press Writer

MILWAUKEE - Connie Adams found it impossible to escape her ex-boyfriend.

He would follow her as she drove to work or ran errands. He would inexplicably pull up
next to her at
stoplights and once tried to run her off the highway, authorities said.

When he showed up at a bar she was visiting for the first time, on a date, Adams began to
suspect
Paul Seidler wasn't operating on instinct alone.

He wasn't — Seidler had installed a satellite tracking device in Adams' car, according to
police in
Kenosha, Wis., 30 miles south of Milwaukee.

"He told me no matter where I went or what I did, he would know where I was," Adams
testified at a
recent court hearing.

Police say Adams' case and several others across the country herald an incipient danger —
high-tech stalking.

Just as the global satellite positioning system can help save lives, so can its abuse
endanger them, advocates of stalking victims
say.

"As technology advances, it's going to be almost impossible for victims to flee and get to
safety," said Cindy Southworth, director
of technology at the National Network to End Domestic Violence in Washington.

In the Adams case, Seidler pleaded innocent last month to felony counts of stalking,
recklessly endangering safety, burglary and
a misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct. His trial is pending.

Adams does not want to speak to reporters about the case, said Susan Karaskiewicz, a
Kenosha County prosecutor.

Police say Seidler put a global positioning tracking device between the radiator and grill
of Adams' car. Such gadgets use a
constellation of Defense Department satellites to pinpoint location and can send their
coordinates via cellular networks to wireless
handsets or computers.

Trucking companies use GPS systems to track of hazardous cargo and monitor drivers.
Corrections authorities use them to
monitor sex offenders. Hikers, boaters and motorists use GPS devices to keep from getting
lost. GPS technology is also being
built into cell phones to help emergency dispatchers find 911 callers. They're also being
used to prevent car theft.

Southworth trains victims advocates, law enforcement and prosecutors on stalkers' use of
the technology, which she says is only
just beginning to be abused.

The Stalking Resource Center at the National Center for Victims of Crime has found at
least one other case of a GPS system
being used to stalk a victim.

In it, a Colorado appeals court in July upheld Robert Sullivan's conviction for stalking
his ex-wife and installing a GPS device in her
car to track her movements.

GPS is not the first technology to be misused by stalkers, who have also employed the
Internet, microchip-sized cameras and
even caller identification, said Southworth, though it is the most dangerous to date.

Just as she once taught victims how to block caller ID when they use the phone, Southworth
now suggests victims occasionally
check under their car's hood.

Police are also finding GPS devices useful. Marla Wagner, sales manager at L.A.S. Systems,
the same McHenry, Ill.-based
company that made Seidler's device, said the company has sold GPS systems to about 10
police departments during the last
year. The Kenosha Police Department is also buying a system from L.A.S. Systems.

Tracy Bahm, the Stalking Resource Center's director, said some states are working to
update their stalking statutes to include
the high-tech variety.

The center typically advises states to keep their statutes broad enough to include
technologies that don't yet exist.

"As society and technology evolve, stalkers will always find new ways to harass their
victims," Bahm said.

___

On the Net:

Stalking Resource Center: http://www.ncvc.org/src

National Network to End Domestic Violence: http://www.nnedv.org

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=562&u=/ap/20030206/ap_on_hi_te/satellite_stalking_2&printer=1

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