FBI cuts back on GPS surveillance after Supreme Court ruling

WASHINGTON -- The FBI has begun cutting back GPS surveillance in an array of criminal and intelligence investigations following a Supreme Court ruling last month restricting its use, a federal law enforcement official said.

The bureau began implementing the change the day after the Jan. 23 ruling in which the court found that attaching such a device to a car amounted to a search covered by the Fourth Amendment, requiring police to seek warrants in many cases.

The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly on the matter, said the GPS directive was issued until further legal guidance is provided on the use of the technology.

Meanwhile, the official said, additional FBI agents have been dispatched to cover costly, labor-intensive surveillance operations that had previously relied on GPS technology.

The FBI's actions represent the first evidence of a tactical change by federal law enforcement prompted by the court's ruling, which has raised new questions throughout the criminal justice and intelligence communities.

The Justice Department is in the midst of evaluating the ruling's implications, Justice spokeswoman Laura Sweeney said.

It was unclear whether the court decision will force a change in the department's manual guiding federal law enforcement operations.

In that document, known as "The Attorney General's Guidelines for Domestic FBI Operations," a list of approved investigative methods includes the use of GPS-type "direction finders and other monitoring devices," which "usually do not require court orders or warrants."

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said GPS surveillance is the subject of legal analysis within the intelligence community.

"We are now examining … the potential implications for intelligence, foreign or domestic," he told the Senate Intelligence Committee last week.

"That reading is of great interest to us. In all of this, we will — we have and will — continue to abide by the Fourth Amendment."

Ray Mey, a former FBI counterterrorism official, said the bureau's decision to limit GPS use, if only temporarily, poses potential risks and staffing problems.

"This kind of technology is one of the only ways to pinpoint the locations of suspects," said Mey, who directed counterterrorism operations for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. "The potential to lose someone in traffic in a place like New York is big. Vehicle surveillance is not easy.

"Without (GPS)," he said, "surveillance becomes hugely labor intensive, especially in cases in which you need round-the-clock coverage. It's something that could strap the bureau."