Free Talk Live

NEW YORK -- Alarmed by the use of hard-to-track prepaid cell phones by terror suspects, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer and Texas Sen. John Cornyn have introduced legislation requiring consumers to produce identification before buying such phones.

Appeals court rules law enforcement agencies don't need a warrant to "ping" and track prepaid cellphone locations.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/08/warrantless-gps-phone-tracking/
http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/12a0262p-06.pdf

ACLU affiliates across America requested information on local law enforcement's use of cell-phone tracking across the nation and have received a wealth of disturbing information about the extent of wireless tracking. They have produced a map showing which police departments were discovered to be tracking people's phones without a warrant.

Law enforcement tracking of cellphones, once the province mainly of federal agents, has become a powerful and widely used surveillance tool for local police officials, with hundreds of departments, large and small, often using it aggressively with little or no court oversight, documents show.

Two years ago, when the FBI was stymied by a band of armed robbers known as the "Scarecrow Bandits" that had robbed more than 20 Texas banks, it came up with a novel method of locating the thieves.

This is a little old, but I'm not sure if this law is in place anywhere else, but no one is allowed to use any electronic devices while driving.

Although police officers can use there cellphones, and even laptops while driving.

Law enforcement agencies in the U.S. made more than 1.3 million requests for consumers’ cellphone records in 2011, an alarming surge over previous years that reflected the increasingly gray area between privacy and technology. Cellphone carriers, responding to inquiries from a member of Congress, reported responding to as many as thousands of police requests daily for customers’ locations, text messages and call details, frequently without warrants.

A businessman is under fire for buying tiny parcels of land so he can sell or lease them for inflated prices to people who thought they owned them.

In one case, Guthrie businessman Ron Edwards is demanding four Edmond condominium owners pay him $80,000 for a shared driveway he bought for $1,584 at a county auction.

"I thought I made a decent offer,” Edwards said.

The owners haven't paid, so Edwards blocked their driveway with concrete highway barriers last month.

Judge regularly fines those in courtroom who have cellphones ring. His cell phone went off during proceedings. He went and paid the fine, as he makes others do.