MERIDIAN, Idaho -- The man accused of shooting a woman at a Twin Falls Comfort Inn Hotel on Monday has been found and is in custody. Police were able to find Thomas Trevino in Colorado, in part, by tracking his cell phone. A Colorado resident then tipped police off to his more exact location.
That cell phone technology used in locating Trevino is credited with helping police solve other local crimes. Most cell phones now come equipped with GPS technology, which sometimes allows emergency officials to trace the phone.
If you bought your cell phone in 2006 or later, your phone most likely has GPS capabilities.
"It's expanded a lot over the last couple years. It used to be only that the PDA type phones had GPS technology in them. As PDAs became more popular throughout the last couple years, most of our phones have gone to that technology," Meridian Sprint store manager Dallin Wilcox said.
You might be familiar with GPS technology from programs on your phone that give you directions to where you're going, but it works backwards too, tracking where you are.
"With that technology of Sprint navigation and GPS being in the phone, it allows you to not only know where you're going as far as driving, it allows police officers, all those types of personnel to be able to find that phone," Wilcox said.
The accuracy of tracking depends on how well an area is covered by cell signals, whether the phone is on, and the level of GPS capability on the phone, but local experts have seen phones tracked to within just feet.
"I had a customer a couple months ago that lost their cell phone on the side of the high way. He didn't know he lost it on the side of the highway, but we called in, we were able to track his phone within ten feet," Wilcox said.
If police need to find you and want to try using your cell phone location, they have to contact your cell phone carrier which can help with the tracking.
One catch: the phone has to be turned on; otherwise, they can just find the last tower your phone used when it was turned on.
If police do a trace, the person with the phone wouldn't know it; experts say police can pinpoint anonymously.
In addition to law enforcement, many parents also take advantage of GPS tracking. Some carriers, like Sprint, offer a program to alert parents if their children go to areas they aren't supposed to be.
Another local case that was helped with cell phone GPS was the arrest of John Delling in April 2007. He is the Boise man convicted of killing two Idaho college students that year. With warrants issued, police worked with Sprint to track Delling's location to the Reno area. For his crimes, he is now serving two life sentences without possibility of parole.
