MD: Davis good faith applies to pre-Jones GPS, saying “we wouldn’t have thought of it”

GPS surveillance for 11 days prior to Jones would not be suppressed under Davis. The court admits that it wouldn’t have held GPS tracking a violation of the Fourth Amendment prior to Jones. [Why concede that you’re so limited in your thinking?] Kelly v. State, 436 Md. 406 (December 23, 2013):*

At the time of the search at issue in this case, without the benefit of Jones, we would have applied Knotts—which, as the Court of Special Appeals found in Stone, was at the time, and had been since 1983, Maryland law—to resolve the question of the constitutionality of GPS tracking of a vehicle on public roads. We can expect no more from law enforcement officers. Petitioner is correct that no Maryland appellate decision has held expressly that the attachment and use of a GPS tracking device is permissible under the Fourth Amendment. Nevertheless, just as the Court of Special Appeals applied Knotts, pre-Jones, when considering the relevance of testimony on the subject of GPS tracking of a vehicle on public streets in Stone, so too could police officers reasonably rely on Knotts, pre-Jones, in affixing a GPS tracking device to the vehicle of a person under their investigation for the purpose of conducting surveillance.

We therefore hold that, before Jones, binding appellate precedent in Maryland, namely Knotts, authorized the GPS tracking of a vehicle on public roads. The Howard County detectives acted in objectively reasonable reliance on that authority when they conducted their GPS tracking of Petitioner’s vehicle, and the Davis good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule applies. Petitioner is not entitled to the suppression of evidence. Consequently, we affirm the judgment of the Court of Special Appeals.