No, cops aren’t using SiriusXM to find criminals. Here’s how they do it

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An Ars reader this week drew our attention to a news story out of Southern California. The case involved a man wanted on suspicion of attempted murder and other alleged crimes. He fled from one county to another, but according to the article, sheriff’s deputies were able to locate him by “sending a ‘ping’ to his Sirius satellite radio,” after which the suspect was found and arrested.

The mysterious “ping” grabbed the reader’s attention, as well as several Ars staffers: what, exactly, did law enforcement do? How did it work? And what are the implications for everyone driving around with a SiriusXM satellite radio in their car?

The case

A representative for Sirius was unable to say if the company was involved in any specific way in this particular case or even if the case did indeed involve an actual Sirius product. Whatever happened, calling it a “Sirius radio ping” was probably a misnomer, the company told Ars, as Sirius satellite radio itself is a one-way operation. The actual radios have no geolocating capacity and can’t “ping” anything back to anyone.