Now that hurricane season is at a peak, its a good time to talk about the role GPS is playing in monitoring hurricanes. Hurricane season begins on June 1 each year and extends through November. Its official apex day is September 10th. Global Positioning Technology has been used for GPS navigation and GPS tracking for years, and now it is being used for hurricane warnings.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has partnered with NASA in order to develop a system for using GPS to hunt down hurricanes. The technology is using advanced measurements in order to map out hurricane wind speeds. So far it has been in the testing stage and is showing to be effective at determining the approximate speed and location of various hurricanes. The intent is to provide early warnings for hurricanes and hopefully give people enough time to find a safe location. Read the rest of this entry »

GPS technology being used to locate lost dementia and Alzheimer’s patients with the use of its internal tracking functions.

The British Medical Journal (BMH) released a study in June 2013 detailing the benefits of using GPS tracking technology to help medical personnel locate dementia patients who have gotten lost. While some specialists are debating the ethics of  tracking patient’s location with the devices, most expert agree it would do more good than harm.

The Statistics

In the UK and U.S., the amount of elderly persons with dementia continues to climb. There are expected to be 200,000 adults develop dementia in Britain in the next 8 years, which will bring the total to more than a million people.  In the U.S., over 5 million people have and live with Alzheimer’s disease, and it is the sixth leading cause of death. In the UK, dementia costs approximately $35 billion a year, which will increase as the baby boomer generation reaches their retirement age. Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia and counts for up to 80 percent of the cases. Read the rest of this entry »

Operating a business today is expensive. Everywhere you turn, there are new expenses to pay. Insurance is one expense that most small business owners hate paying month after month. That is, until you find yourself in need of it. But, what if you could do something small and insignificant that helped you save money on insurance and other operational expenses? You can! All you need to do to begin lowering the cost of insurance for your fleet vehicles, by anywhere between 5 and 30 percent, is to install GPS fleet tracking system on your vehicles. Here’s why it helps you save.

Improves Odds of Vehicle Recovery from Theft

Theft is a big risk for insurance companies. The installation of real time GPS tracking systems on all fleet vehicles greatly improves the odds of vehicle recoveries following thefts. This reduces the risks the insurance takes on when insuring your vehicles and, as a result, lowers the fee they charge you for that protection. Depending on the specific fleet tracking software you purchase, it is possible to create alerts whenever vehicles leave certain geographic boundaries or are active at certain times of the day so that you’re aware of potential thefts sooner rather than later too. Read the rest of this entry »

In an attempt to block his employer from tracking his work truck, New Jersey resident is fined $32,000 for using an illegal GPS jammer.

GPS jammers are illegal in the United States because of their ability to block important communications. And for one New Jersey man, the cost was much higher than he anticipated.

Gary Bojczak first got the jammer to block his employer from tracking his whereabouts during his work shift. The company he works for installed GPS tracking devices on all work trucks, including the one he was driving. They did this in order to monitor the trucks’ location and other data, and be sure company time was being used wisely.

Unfortunately for Bojczak, using the signal jammer device also blocked a nearby GPS system that was being used for the airport. At Newark Liberty International Airport, they were attempting to test a new GPS system for their plane routes. As Bojczak pulled up next to the airport on his route, their GPS system was jammed, which alerted the airport’s security team.

Security was able to trace the issue back to the Ford pickup truck that Bojczak was driving. They investigated the matter further, along with one of the agents from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Read the rest of this entry »

The news is full of excellent stories about how GPS is helpful to businesses, consumers, and even ambulances. You probably haven’t seen as many stories about how many benefits GPS tracking represents for law enforcement.  However, there are many. These are just a few ways in which police departments and their officers can benefit from law enforcement GPS technology.

Evidence Gathering

GPS tracking logs and data provide outstanding historical data. In the evidentiary process, this type of evidence can confirm or discredit alibis, establish vehicle locations at specific times, and determine how long the vehicle was in a specific location. This information can be critical when establishing “opportunity” in relationship to specific crimes.

For the sake of law enforcement professionals, it’s even possible to use GPS tracking in order to defend against accusations levied against them for common, and often unfounded, complaints such as driving speeds, operating outside of patrol areas, and harassment. How does that work? By establishing where vehicles are at all times. GPS tracking can even determine the speed the car is traveling at any given time to provide evidence that officers are operating according to department policies at all times. Of course, it is necessary to abide by GPS tracking warrant rules. Read the rest of this entry »