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Is it really that hard for them to get warrants? I don't get all these shenanigans to avoid warrants. They should be able to easily make the case that this person was suspected of selling drugs and that the GPS data would help prove this.

I don't understand the law involved in getting and using a warrant, can someone clarify the difficulties that make it necessary to bypass it?

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This is how you get a search warrant: A person makes an affidavit in front of a neutral and detached magistrate, who then determines that a reasonable person would conclude that it was more likely than not that incriminating evidence of the named items or persons would be found in the specifically named place to be searched.

Lots of legal buzzwords there. Each of those buzzwords adds overheard in obtaining a warrant. Police are happy to avoid that overheard whenever possible. That is the motivation to avoid obtaining search warrants. Plus, a privacy minded judge might deny you. With warrant-requirement-exceptions you don't run the risk of being denied a search. You just do it.

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