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Satnavs stop criminal trail turning cold

Personal data recovered from by satellite navigation systems has helped London's Metropolitan Police to solve crimes including kidnap, the grooming of children, murder and terrorism

LOCATION data that lingers in the memory of GPS receivers is proving an unexpected boon for crime-fighters.

London’s Metropolitan Police have used information extracted from satnavs to help investigations into kidnaps, the grooming of children, murder and terrorism, according to a paper by forensic analyst Beverley Nutter, to appear in the journal Digital Investigation. The data, stored on memory cards or hard drives, can include hundreds of GPS fixes of a user’s movements, including the location of their home and places they have recently visited.

And since some people couple their satnavs to their cellphones, GPS receivers can also contain phone numbers they have called or received calls from, contact lists and text messages – making them a fruitful one-stop-shop for detectives.