I used to work with some detectives who told me this exact thing. The "little tracking devices" helped them solve a lot more crimes than they ever dreamed of,

I used to work with some detectives who told me this exact thing. The "little tracking devices" helped them solve a lot more crimes than they ever dreamed of, but they said that it also requires a lot more paperwork, desk work, warrants, etc to do anything now. So even though it's easier, they have to jump through a lot more hoops to get the data. They also said that that work is 90% of their jobs now. The other 10% is "non-it computer work." It's a small local sheriff's dept (if that makes any difference).