How Do Police Track Cell Phones?
As cell phones become more popular, more criminal offenders are using them to contact accomplices, accessories or dealers. For this reason, police have developed methods to track an offenders’ location via their cell phones.How Cell Phones WorkCell phones send data signals to cell towers. These towers, in turn, allow the calls to be routed precisely to the phone that has been called by way of signal triangulation.Signal TriangulationThe strength of the cell’s signal, as well as the side of the cell tower from which it is coming, is recorded by the tower. This allows triangulation of the cell phone’s position with just a few hundred yards’ variance.Procedure to Allow TrackingWhen a person is the subject of an investigation by law enforcement officials and are known to carry cell phones, investigators can include a petition to track these phones along with orders to apprehend information of calls going to or from the suspect via land line or cell phone.Service ProvidersSince 2001, the Fe
