How law enforcement uses Google Earth

Service helps police see what pot growers and property tax cheats are doing, as well as provide public with important traffic data. Images: Google Earth eyes the law





Todd Fulton, a deputy in the Humboldt County, Calif., sheriff's department, said his agency is also using Google Earth as one piece in its marijuana interdiction activities, albeit a small one. "We'll use GPS (devices) and transfer the GPS data over to Google Earth," Fulton said, "to get an idea of the terrain we're dealing with."

That's particularly useful in a region like Humboldt County--one of the largest marijuana-growing regions in the United States--given that it consists of millions of acres of rough, hilly terrain. So being able to use Google Earth to do something that previously might have required flying around in a helicopter is much more efficient, Fulton suggested.




Chuck Herring, director of communications for satellite data provider DigitalGlobe, said he thinks that the quality of the imagery his company offers, and that of Google Earth, is good enough to spot things like large marijuana fields.


"I think it's useful, but there are some caveats," Taylor said. "The satellite photography in Google Earth is not live. It's not even recent. In most cases, it varies widely from as recent as a few months old to a few years old."

Taylor said some law enforcement agencies have access to the enterprise version of Google Earth, which may have more recent photography. Still, it's not likely that even that data would help police nab pot growers in the act.

Beyond pot busts
But several agencies have found other ways to utilize the service, both for law enforcement and for public service. He explained that there have been multiple cases of tax authorities using Google Earth to crack down on homeowners who have built additions to their property but who are not paying taxes on that new construction, Taylor said.


A more public service-oriented utilization of Google Earth by law enforcement is one undertaken by the Ohio State Highway Patrol. For the past two years, the agency has been providing Google Earth data showing the locations of fatal accidents--including those identified as being alcohol-related. The agency is also providing data showing the locations with the highest frequency of drunk-driving arrests.

Using that data, it's possible to get a sense of dangerous roads or intersections, including those on which people are more likely to be driving drunk, Taylor said.

"You can see where more drunk drivers have been found," Taylor said. "Those are places you might want to avoid on a Saturday night."



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