Watching movies i get this question a lot
If a person throws his phone away , how does the police know who is the owner of the phone?
In: 8
Most of the time the law enforcement agency isn’t tracking the phone directly. They’re requesting location data from the cell companies. That might be via a subpoena or search warrant, or if it’s real time it’s called exigent circumstance cell tracing. Like, say you are suicidal and we have your number we can ask Verizon or whoever your carrier is to start tracking your phones pings off the closest cell tower. The data accuracy varies wildly depending on what part of the country you are in, but it’s generally pretty useful.
Keep in mind, this is not the same GPS data that your apps are using, like Google maps for example. That information is way more accurate and the companies in control of the data do not part with it all willy nilly.
I am a dispatcher in a rural county in the Midwest and exigent cell tracing has helped me save dozens of lives.
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