GPS Tracking Device Questions

[Mrs. CAR-10]

I'm hoping someone here can help me answer some questions about a GPS tracking device.

I have a niece that is in the heat of a custody battle. Her mother (my sister) was never married to the father. It was a stupid high school thing, she got pregnant, found out afterwards that the guy was in fact NOT the man of her dreams. She found out after my niece was born that the father was a convicted sex offender, a pedophile, and a child rapist. He is a class I sex offender (supposedly not likely to reoffend). He was underage when the offenses took place. After my niece was born, my sister walked in on him looking at kiddy porn while my niece was in the room (it was just the dad and the niece). Since then, they have started the whole court thing to decide who gets custody.

They are in a small rural town in Washington state. The father's family works at the police dept., the court house (family member is the court clerk and buddies with the judge on the case), etc... My sister currently has temporary custody and is fighting the father having unsupervised visits. It seems like common sense to me that a child molester shouldn't have free access to, gasp, a child. The most recent court date ended with the father having visits for 5 hours once a week, with his elderly grandmother (who doesn't believe he is a child molester) being the superviser.

We are worried that the grandmother will just pick up my niece and then let the father take her and be unsupervised. We would like to purchase some sort of tracking device to be on my niece to make sure that she isn't at his house (he lives with a bunch of scumbags in an old trailer house out in the boonies) during the visits, since the grandmother obviously wouldn't be there.

So, after that Jerry Springer intro, my questions are:

What are the legal issues with tracking devices? It would be on my niece, not on a vehicle or anything.

I think we want a "real-time" devise, correct? How does the tracking actually work? Do we subscribe to a service, like phone service? I really have no clue.

Does anyone have any recommendations on the specific unit/service to go with? How small are the actual units? I understand they're not little tiny like on the spy movies (too bad), but what are the smallest units that still adequately transmit the signal?

I don't know if anyone on here has any info or experience with the tracking devices, but I figured I'd throw it out there just in case. Thanks for any help!

-Mrs. CAR-10

[Trace]

Originally Posted by Mrs. CAR-10

I'm hoping someone here can help me answer some questions about a GPS tracking device.

I have a niece that is in the heat of a custody battle. Her mother (my sister) was never married to the father. It was a stupid high school thing, she got pregnant, found out afterwards that the guy was in fact NOT the man of her dreams. She found out after my niece was born that the father was a convicted sex offender, a pedophile, and a child rapist. He is a class I sex offender (supposedly not likely to reoffend). He was underage when the offenses took place. After my niece was born, my sister walked in on him looking at kiddy porn while my niece was in the room (it was just the dad and the niece). Since then, they have started the whole court thing to decide who gets custody.

They are in a small rural town in Washington state. The father's family works at the police dept., the court house (family member is the court clerk and buddies with the judge on the case), etc... My sister currently has temporary custody and is fighting the father having unsupervised visits. It seems like common sense to me that a child molester shouldn't have free access to, gasp, a child. The most recent court date ended with the father having visits for 5 hours once a week, with his elderly grandmother (who doesn't believe he is a child molester) being the superviser.

We are worried that the grandmother will just pick up my niece and then let the father take her and be unsupervised. We would like to purchase some sort of tracking device to be on my niece to make sure that she isn't at his house (he lives with a bunch of scumbags in an old trailer house out in the boonies) during the visits, since the grandmother obviously wouldn't be there.

So, after that Jerry Springer intro, my questions are:

What are the legal issues with tracking devices? It would be on my niece, not on a vehicle or anything.

I think we want a "real-time" devise, correct? How does the tracking actually work? Do we subscribe to a service, like phone service? I really have no clue.

Does anyone have any recommendations on the specific unit/service to go with? How small are the actual units? I understand they're not little tiny like on the spy movies (too bad), but what are the smallest units that still adequately transmit the signal?

I don't know if anyone on here has any info or experience with the tracking devices, but I figured I'd throw it out there just in case. Thanks for any help!

-Mrs. CAR-10

Boost mobile, Sprint/Nextel, and Verizon have GPS that you can locate users through the website. It's what my corporation uses as our electronic "big brother".

[Tiburon65]

GPS technology has come a long way. it really depends on what you want to use to track the person. Like Trace said most cell phones can be used to track people and odds are they will always have their phone. if your neice isnt old enough for a phone they do make "kid friendly" devices like a watch where you can keep an eye on them. these solutions are not cheap but knowing is probably worth it. you can look on the web for these they should be widely available. the problem will be with what device you use and whether it can stay with her. An ankel bracelet is what the criminal justice system uses. it will send an alarm if its tampered with or taken off. not sure you want that for her but whose to say the guy doesnt take off the "watch gps" and leave it at home while they go somewhere. more stealty options might be available. without knowing off your situation and what you want its hard to say, but with today's technology there are ways to track people.

[Majk]

Mrs. Car you might want to check this product out.

http://childlocator.com/

This one is a little more expensive but may work for a infant for a diaper bag or something else.

http://www.cuttingedgesecurity.com/p...rod=SG%2DCTG01

[oklawall]

good morning America or today (which ever one the wife watches had some tennis shoes the other day that had a GPS tracker in them

[sturmruger]

The problem is that all of these types of systems rely on a wireless system. Typically they run on the Sprint network which is nonexistant in rural areas.

[Mrs. CAR-10]

Wow, thanks for all of the great info so far! This is exactly the type of information I was looking for.

They are definitely in a rural area, so going through Sprint might be an issue. Also, my niece is 2 years old, so that rules a lot of stuff out. And we do want whatever it is to be discreet/covert. If he knew, I'm sure he would probably just take it off and throw it in the trash, and we would be out several hundred dollars! The watch that someone linked to was interesting because it has a "lock". I would just need to know how small it can be made, since she is still pretty small.

Can anybody link of the the super small stuff (like a bracelet or the shoes), I can't seem to find them through google.

Thanks!