Can Police Find You Through a Cell Phone

Hello, my son is a fugitive from justice on a very minor misdemeanor bench warrant for FTA. I believe police have asked the neighboring state where he lives to arrest and extradite him (about 3 hours away), but the police have been unable to locate him since they do not know his whereabouts. My question is can police pin down his location via cell phone triangulation, and would the police actually go through the expense and hassle of doing this? Is this common? Right now he turns his cell phone off and uses it only for a few minutes a day. He keeps moving on a daily basis so it will be hard for police to find him.

Thank you.

every phone manufactured in the last several years has location finding abilities. It was required by the government so a person using the 911 services would be locatable without having to use the triangulation method, which is terribly inaccurate. The newer GPS based system locates the phone within a few feet.

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Hello, my son is a fugitive from justice on a very minor misdemeanor bench warrant for FTA.

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Of course, there is the original charge he is wanted for as well.

expense? what expense? it is automatic and there is no additional charge for this.

thank you. as to the expenses, i mean it costs money for the police to send people to extradite someone back to another state. it's a three hour trip by car, one way. it also costs the state that is asked to arrest the person man hours for the police to track down and arrest the person wanted in another state. given that it is a minor misdemeanor that would only result in a small fine (charge of lying to police about date of birth)), it doesnt seem prudent to extradite from out of state for this offense. waste of time and money and man hours. it would cost the agencies more to bring this person to justice than they would get in fines.

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Quoting kpn

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waste of time and money and man hours. it would cost the agencies more to bring this person to justice than they would get in fines.

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ALL criminal prosecutions cost more than a state would ever receive in any sort of compensation. They are not a money making proposal. They are simply to enforce the laws.

true, but then why dont states generally extradite for misdemeanor of traffic offenses when the person is found many states away? it would be too much of a hassle and cost too much.

bobby knight, the famous ncaa basketball coach, has an outstanding arrest warrant in Puerto Rico for assault, for example, but PR chooses not to extradite given the impracticality of the case.

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Quoting kpn

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Hello, my son is a fugitive from justice on a very minor misdemeanor bench warrant for FTA. I believe police have asked the neighboring state where he lives to arrest and extradite him (about 3 hours away), but the police have been unable to locate him since they do not know his whereabouts. My question is can police pin down his location via cell phone triangulation, and would the police actually go through the expense and hassle of doing this? Is this common? Right now he turns his cell phone off and uses it only for a few minutes a day. He keeps moving on a daily basis so it will be hard for police to find him.

Thank you.

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COULD they locate him via cell phone? In most cases, no. Unless you are in a big city with multiple cell towers from which to triangulate, the police would only get a very rough area in which to search. Some phone manufacturers have true GPS capabilities, and those could be used, but very few are true GPS devices.

As for the police commonly doing this ... For a low level misdemeanor? Nope.

- Carl

Thank you sir, I appreciate your response.

I know that's how they found OJ back in 1994 when he was fleeing police in his SUV. He was on the phone and they found him and began a slow pursuit.

Also, there was a case where a woman crashed her car off a road into a deep ravine, invisible to passers by, and the police, after suspecting her husband of abducting her for a week, used cell phone triangulation off her almost dead cell phone battery to locate her crashed car and body, under heavy bush. she was still alive miraculously.

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Quoting cdwjava

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COULD they locate him via cell phone? In most cases, no. Unless you are in a big city with multiple cell towers from which to triangulate, the police would only get a very rough area in which to search. Some phone manufacturers have true GPS capabilities, and those could be used, but very few are true GPS devices.

As for the police commonly doing this ... For a low level misdemeanor? Nope.

- Carl

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here is a snippet from a website concerning GPS locators built into phones.

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Some companies, such as Cingular, adopted technology that locates a cell phone by analyzing how its signal is picked up by different cell towers. Others, including Verizon, Sprint, and Nextel, decided to install a GPS receiver in every cell phone.

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I know of very few, if any phones that still use triangulation to locate a phone due to the inaccuracies inherent in that system. All I have seem in the past couple of years are GPS capable and the accuracy is amazing.

Carl, I live in a very small town and I can locate my phone within a relatively small area. Try searching using

"google latitude"

it may amaze you. Big city, small city, no difference. GPS doesn;t care what size city you are in.

It can't be THAT amazing, because no one has told law enforcement about it.

There are a lot of factors that come into play including the type of phone, the service provider, permutation of towers (multiple cells), etc. Finding A SINGLE individual on a street or block using simply a cell phone signal happens on TV but rarely in real life. And, when it does, there tends to be a team or a task force hunting for the guy.

And the problem with Google Latitude is that it works on a limited number o phones, and your friends have to accept it ... I doubt that Johnny Q. Dirtbag is going to agree to receive the cops' signal.

A lot of technology works great on TV, but there are numerous obstacles to the real world application of a good deal of it.

- Carl

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Quoting kpn

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I know that's how they found OJ back in 1994 when he was fleeing police in his SUV. He was on the phone and they found him and began a slow pursuit.

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They tracked the travel of his signal from tower to tower. Even if a person is no on the phone, the phone sends a signal to the towers effectively pinging them telling them it's there and they can be tracked in that way. But, absent GPS, locating a person within a matter even of several yards is nearly impossible. The pseudo "GPS" on my iPhone is lucky to get it right within a 1/4 mile!

- Carl

carl, I have located my phone within a few feet. That's pretty amazing to me.

If your phone has GPS capabilites (which is the large majority of phones out there), your phone can be located any time it is on. Obviously, it would require a court order for the police to be able to do so (unless you are considered a terrorist. Then I think the Patriot Act took care of that requirement) and yes, for a minor misdemeanor it simply would not happen BUT it can.

the tower situation does not affect GPS location.

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Quoting jk

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carl, I have located my phone within a few feet. That's pretty amazing to me.

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Good for you. Most people don't have phones quite that good.

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If your phone has GPS capabilites (which is the large majority of phones out there), your phone can be located any time it is on. Obviously, it would require a court order for the police to be able to do so (unless you are considered a terrorist. Then I think the Patriot Act took care of that requirement) and yes, for a minor misdemeanor it simply would not happen BUT it can.

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Well, I HAVE gotten those warrants (the Patriot Act did not change how local cops do their jobs), and with the exception of a few phones we cannot locate them with such great and grand accuracy. I suppose they are getting better, but they are still flawed, and it seems that all the people that need rescuing or the criminals seem to have phones that require measuring signal strength between towers to try and locate them.

GPS enabled phones are required by law to be accurate within 100 meters ... sadly, this does not always seem to be the case, and not all brands ARE so enabled nor will they be for some time. Plus, the phone needs to be ON.

Additionally, while the 9-1-1 network is supposed to be able to ascertain this location information, in most places in my state it does not. The address displayed on the 9-1-1 screen tends to be the address of the nearest relay tower or cell and not the location of the caller.

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the tower situation does not affect GPS location.

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Not for those with GPS, but contrary to popular belief not everyone has run out and gotten a new phone with this capability.

Like I said, the THEORY is one thing - the reality is another. Most law enforcement agencies don't have a close personal relationship with the cell phone provider (IF they even KNOW the provider ... something made more difficult with portability) so obtaining a warrant for the E-911 tracking can be difficult because you have to find out who to serve it on. And phones that have been owned for more than a year may well have transferred provider plans and a reverse on the number will find the provider it was originally registered to, not necessarily the one to whom it is operated through right now.

Finding people through cell phone locations is a concerted, serious and moderately expensive business. Doing it for a misdemeanor offense is almost certainly not going to happen. This is rarely utilized except in very serious offenses or ongoing major criminal investigations. Or, after the fact when locations and timing are important when building a serious felony case ... and then the info is much more vague.

- Carl

Dang, it seems like every kid I run in to today has had 3 phones in the past year. The phone companies push this a lot here.

Not really trying to argue with you Carl. I understand your position and of course, you do have a lot more experience trying to utilize such tech so I will defer to your experience.

I did acknowledge the fact that a misdemeanor will not justify the effort required to search via cell locators.

but I am thrilled that such systems seem to be much more effective in my little semi-rural area than in California in general. I guess small town life is not as behind the times as many believe.

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Quoting jk

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Dang, it seems like every kid I run in to today has had 3 phones in the past year. The phone companies push this a lot here.

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We deal with adults, old phones, and people with throw down phones (the pre-paid packages at Circle K, Wal-Mart, etc.). On TV they make it look so simple.

Too bad we're not looking for kids whose parents can afford to buy them the cherry cellphones.

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Not really trying to argue with you Carl. I understand your position and of course, you do have a lot more experience trying to utilize such tech so I will defer to your experience.

I did acknowledge the fact that a misdemeanor will not justify the effort required to search via cell locators.

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I understand. But, there is a great disconnect between the technology that is theoretically available, and the ability to actually employ that technology. Just like on TV - the technology to do what they do is there, the resources and ability to deploy it is just not there (largely due to cost issues). The budget for one lab room as portrayed in CSI is probably greater than my agency's entire annual operating budget!

I recall that when Miami Vice was on TV (yeah, I'm that old ... older, even), it cost more to shoot one episode of that show than the entire annual budget for the REAL Miami Vice unit.

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but I am thrilled that such systems seem to be much more effective in my little semi-rural area than in California in general. I guess small town life is not as behind the times as many believe.

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I am in a rural part of California and also in a small town ... yours must be in one of the more affluent areas. We have two cell towers in the area and if we can identify the places in the county (in flat lands ta boot, mind you) that there is no cell service on most providers. Only Verizon has nearly universal coverage up here.

- Carl

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I recall that when Miami Vice was on TV (yeah, I'm that old ... older, even), it cost more to shoot one episode of that show than the entire annual budget for the REAL Miami Vice unit.

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Don't feel bad. I'm that old too. I somehow acquired an odd affection for flamingos due to that show.

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I am in a rural part of California and also in a small town ... yours must be in one of the more affluent areas. We have two cell towers in the area and if we can identify the places in the county (in flat lands ta boot, mind you) that there is no cell service on most providers. Only Verizon has nearly universal coverage up here.

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Would next door to the University of Notre Dame be considered affluent? I also live about 20 miles from what was the area with the highest per capita count of millionaires in the country. (although that is now the area with the fastest increase of unemployment in the country. Obama made one of his first speeches concerning his economy improvements there (Elkhart county, Indiana)



Dang, I just looked at a cell tower locator and there are at least 40 towers within 15 miles of my house.

dang, another site tells me there are 20 towers within 4 miles of my house.

maybe I'm not as rural as I though I was. Maybe it is just the fact a friend has a 2000 acre farm just down the road from me that makes me feel that way.

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Quoting jk

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Don't feel bad. I'm that old too. I somehow acquired an odd affection for flamingos due to that show.

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One of the local farmers has the ford over their irrigation canal marked by the presence of the darn things! Nothing like seeing a flock o' pink flamingos nestled next to orchards!

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Would next door to the University of Notre Dame be considered affluent? I also live about 20 miles from what was the area with the highest per capita count of millionaires in the country. (although that is now the area with the fastest increase of unemployment in the country. Obama made one of his first speeches concerning his economy improvements there (Elkhart county, Indiana)

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I'd say those parents could afford high end phones three times a year. If my kids lose a phone twice int he two year contract they have to go without until they can "upgrade" ... the insurance gets canceled after two replacements (with a $50 deductible that they owe us for).

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Dang, I just looked at a cell tower locator and there are at least 40 towers within 15 miles of my house.

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Hmmm ... I've always been told there are two towers here, but one web site finds 7 within about 5 miles, and about 40 within 40 miles ... I wonder why service is so bad here ... or precisely what those "towers" are or do?

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maybe I'm not as rural as I though I was. Maybe it is just the fact a friend has a 2000 acre farm just down the road from me that makes me feel that way.

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I'm surrounded by farms, ranches, and not far away National Forest and BLM land ... we're rural. :)

- Carl

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Quoting cdwjava

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Hmmm ... I've always been told there are two towers here, but one web site finds 7 within about 5 miles, and about 40 within 40 miles ... I wonder why service is so bad here ... or precisely what those "towers" are or do?



- Carl

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because every provider is on those towers...except the one you are using.:eek:

if there were no trees around me, I could actually see at least 3 towers from my house yet when I had one carrier, I got no reception while in my house and very limited when outside. Apparently my carrier (of that time) was not on any of the towers I could see.