STATEWIDE–One bill that’s being considered at the Indiana Statehouse is a bill that would make it a crime to follow someone with a remote tracking device without them knowing about it.
Senator Michael Crider (R-Greenfield) wrote the bill because he heard about people using those devices to stalk people.
“This is pretty complicated when you get down to all of the variables that might exist,” said Crider in a hearing Tuesday with the Senate’s Corrections and Criminal Law Committee.
The bill would make it an even more serious crime if that person had a protective order against them. A suspect would face an even longer prison sentence if they used the tracking device to find someone and then commit a felony.
The bill also says that vehicle manufacturers who install tracking and GPS devices in newer model cars and trucks would not be prosecuted. There are exemptions in the legislation for law enforcement, parents tracking minor children, devices placed on personal property and for people who are incarcerated or tracked as a condition of their release.
One woman who spoke in favor of the bill Tuesday is Millie Parke. She almost died two years ago when her ex-boyfriend stabbed her in the heart. He installed a tracking device on her car without her knowing it despite the fact that she had a protective order against him.
“He had access every single time I started my car. The horror in that moment is just unfathomable. You cannot even imagine. It put every person I went to stay with and every person I had contact with, in danger,” said Parke.
They did consider an amendment to let private investigators use tracking devices, but that was rejected.
“No. I’m sorry. I have respect for the profession of private investigators, but the profession predates these kinds of unbelievably invasive devices,” said State Senator Liz Brown of Fort Wayne.
The bill passed out of the committee with a unanimous vote and will be reviewed by the full Senate next where more changes could be coming.
