Cops' hands tied on finding lost phones

A small, green dot on a smartphone app can track your device’s location from anywhere in the world. But if that device is stolen, that pinpoint location may not be precise enough for the police to help you get it back.

Maitland Deputy Police Chief Bill McEachnie said the tracking apps don’t narrow down locations enough to provide probable cause for courts to grant departments search warrants to retrieve them.

“Just because we might necessarily have an idea of where it is, it doesn’t mean we can go get it,” McEachnie said.

That doesn’t mean hope is lost, he said. Detectives can continue to track the phone to see if it goes mobile, and apprehend subjects on the move.

“It’s a helpful tool and we do use it,” McEachnie said. “…But it’s not foolproof.”

According to a Pew Internet study, as of May 2013, 56 percent of American adults owned smartphones. And, as that number rises, so do the potential targets for theft, McEachnie said. So while the apps provide no guarantee, they can still provide a small sense of glimmering hope in each mapped green dot.