Despite our political leanings, many of us can agree that fighting crime is one potential legitimate use of government. After all, if governments are really out to protect us, then they'll also work to protect us from each other. But who can protect us from oppressive crime-fighting policies that wedge themselves into our private lives? As it turns out, only we can.
This issue is important in today's day and age because of the rise of GPS technology as a part of our daily lives. We can track our international global position with a few taps on the screen of an iPhone, and we don't think twice about it. When it comes to fighting crime, however, there are a lot of sensitive issues that the expanding GPS technology has made us aware of. Two problems in particular - addressing crime directly through deterrents and the issue of privacy - are often at the forefront of debates about GPS and the government's role in crime prevention.
Let's take a quick look at these two issues.
Problem #1: Is GPS tracking really a deterrent?
GPS tracking is helpful when we need to find criminals, but does it actually prevent crimes? After all, most people would agree that the best way to fight crime would be to nip it in the bud. Some people don't believe that GPS technology will help deter a lot of crimes.
In the United States, this exact issue has made its way to the headlines. At the Boston Globe, it is noted that some 1,000 Massachusetts convicts have been ordered to wear monitoring devices that track their location. According to the Globe, many of these convicts would actually rather spend their time behind bars.
And what about the idea of deterring crime? A local official, Paul Lucci, had this to say: “It’s impossible to prevent those wearing GPS devices from committing a crime. . . . There are no guarantees whatsoever.’’
In other words, there isn't much of a deterrent for convicts wearing tracking devices. Since many prisoners would rather just spend their time behind bars, what does this say about the success of GPS tracking in law enforcement?
Problem #2: Privacy, privacy, privacy.
Privacy is a hotly-contested issue in the United States as well as here in Australia - determining the government's role in our lives seems to split people along clear boundaries. The issue with GPS is obvious: many people are very skeptical of giving their government the power to find their location.
For some, the issue is simple: if you don't do anything like commit a crime, then you don't have to be afraid of a government that is taking a peak into your personal life. But what about the people who do nothing wrong - wouldn't it be accurate to say their lives are peaked into without producing any benefit to the country at large?
Another example of the problems with GPS and similar technology comes from the U.S.: it was discovered that one school was spying on its students using the built-in web cams of laptop
computers they had let students use. In that news article, GPS technology is cited as a less-invasive use of technology to keep tabs on someone else. But just because a technology is less invasive doesn't mean that it's right to use it.
Technology undoubtedly makes our lives easier, but in many cases, this can lead to a whole new set of complicated issues. There are obvious advantages to using GPS technology in order to keep tabs on your environment, but we have to be wary and wonder if maybe someone else is using the same technology to keep tabs on us.