Feds ordered Google location dragnet to solve Wisconsin bank robbery

Wonder if someone suspected Feds would do this, they could ask their accomplice to take their phone and walk around with it in a different part of town. They would then have a alibi and be discarded as a potential suspect.

Governments serve Google with over-broad search warrants frequently, but there is not information in this article stating or implying that Google responded to this or other similar warrants. Google has a whole department of attorneys dedicated to evaluating search warrants. They claim they won&#x27;t comply with vague and overbroad warrants.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=MeKKHxcJfh0&amp;feature=youtu.be&amp;t=72" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=MeKKHxcJfh0&amp;feature=youtu.be...</a>

- Why asking Google? (My GPS is allways off) - Why not ask the phone providers? - Even the dumbest criminal does know today, don&#x27;t carry your phone with you, if you do something like this.<p>I switzerland was a murder an rape case close to one of most busy highway. The police asked the phone providers for phones in this area (highway included). The first bill from the providers was 860&#x27;000CHF, they reduced it later to 200&#x27;000CHF.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.com&#x2F;amp&#x2F;s&#x2F;www.nzz.ch&#x2F;amp&#x2F;schweiz&#x2F;teure-ueberwachungen-kantone-sollen-kuenftig-pauschale-bezahlen-ld.1446017" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.com&#x2F;amp&#x2F;s&#x2F;www.nzz.ch&#x2F;amp&#x2F;schweiz&#x2F;teure-ue...</a>

2010 - 2030 This kind of thing happens with lots of alarming stories in the news. People are kind of worried that they will get dragged in as a crime suspect simple because they were driving by the area when a crime was being committed nearby.<p>2030 - 2040 This kind of investigation becomes so common that the independent news outlets just stop finding instances of it. People are kind of relaxing about it.<p>2040 - 2050 It turns out that, like DNA evidence, there&#x27;s now an entire innocence project started dedicated to getting people out of incarceration for any crime where the totality of evidence was GPS data and some made up stories.<p>2050 -&gt; Oh sorry that new energy source blew up, earth is gone.

That&#x27;s why you do crime in airplane mode

&quot;If you do the crime, leave the phone behind.&quot;<p>Criminals will adapt, they always do.<p>Because this was a bank robbery, it&#x27;s a Federal warrant which is harder for Google to fight or procrastinate on (if for some reason they chose to).

Can&#x27;t Feds ask mobile phone servers providers(there are only couple of them in US) for phones registered at specific base station? I think police have been doing this for ages.

There’s probably a market for bank cameras with image recognition that automatically set a silent alarm if they spot a gun. Several cameras inside and out could track the individuals.

Isn&#x27;t this a blatant constitutional violation? Maybe while they are at it they can search through everyone&#x27;s house as they &quot;might be there&quot;.<p>Granted the fusion center already have access to this information - alot of times they have to make it official to be admissible in court. So there might be something foul in play here(besides the blatant 4th amendment violation).

Why does the article say they got &quot;every Android phone in the area&quot; - are iPhones using Google Maps not going to get picked up as well?

&gt; With nearly a year elapsed since the warrant was served, that suggests this particular reverse location search may not have been as fruitful as investigators hoped.<p>They did not find anything. But God help you if you have a prior record and happen to be black or match the description of the assailants... and just happened to be around the bank at the time.

Slightly misleading title. &quot;In an attempt to solve&quot; would be better, since the case is still unsolved.

This is particularly relevant with the recent discussion around Amazon&#x27;s Ring partnership with law enforcement. &quot;We will always ask you for permission&quot; gets a bit thin when warrants like this can be issued.

Like straight out of movie Hell or high water

Most criminals tend to use burner phones of the non-smart variation.