Many have legitimately raised privacy concerns about government use of GPS tracking devices to investigate and prosecute various offenses. While laws in most states have not evolved to reflect the rapidly advancing technology on the market today, judges are nonetheless forced to apply legal principles to the use of GPS trackers on private citizens. However, many state and local governments are discovering the benefits of keeping tabs on their own employees with GPS trackers. Here are two recent instances where this level of high-tech accountability proved very useful.

Two city workers in Atlanta were fired after their supervisors used GPS trackers to investigate whether they were misusing government vehicles. The two workers were code compliance officers who were tasked with inspecting various buildings and businesses in the city to ensure that government regulations were met.

However, after they filed an unusual amount of unsubstantiated paperwork and engaged in other suspicious activity, their supervisors became justifiably suspicious. Since the vehicles used by the inspectors were government-owned, their supervisors were allowed to install GPS trackers and monitor the data without a warrant.

The results confirmed the supervisors’ suspicions. The two inspectors were not following their assigned routes or even going to many of their assigned areas. Instead, they were driving the vehicles around Atlanta during the days and evenings, likely for personal use. The paperwork they filed was bogus, and many inspections were not performed.

Similarly, two police officers in Cleveland were placed on a six-month, unpaid suspension after the GPS trackers on their vehicle revealed that they did not adequately respond to the report of a dead body along I-90. Someone had called the police on April 5th, claiming he had seen a body near the road, and dispatchers sent the two officers to investigate. The officers reported back later, saying the body was only a deer.

But GPS tracking data later showed that the police vehicle driven by the officers never actually slowed down near the site of the body. They had simply driven by without investigating. Most of the rest of the evening was spent near a quiet cemetery, where the officers idled instead of patrolling their assigned route.

The body later turned out to belong to a murder victim, and the officers were brought up on departmental charges, to which they pled no contest. The GPS tracker data was the primary evidence used in the hearing.

As courts continue to debate the legality of the use of GPS trackers on private citizens, the benefits of providing accountability to government workers are obvious.