South Dakota GPS Tracking Laws: Is It Legal to Put a Tracker on a Car? (2026)

Search South Dakota's codified laws for "GPS," "tracking device," or "electronic location monitoring" and you will find nothing. South Dakota has no statute that makes it a crime to attach a tracker to someone else's car.

That makes South Dakota one of the clearest gap states in the country. In most states, secretly planting a GPS device on a vehicle you do not own is itself a crime. In South Dakota, prosecutors have to shoehorn the conduct into the general stalking statute, and a hidden tracker does not fit that law neatly.

This guide explains what South Dakota law actually says, when GPS tracking can support a stalking charge under SDCL 22-19A-1, who can legally track a vehicle, and what to do if you find a device on your car. It is part of our GPS Tracking Laws by State series.

Is It Legal to Put a GPS Tracker on a Car in South Dakota?

If the car is yours, yes. If it belongs to someone else, the honest answer is that South Dakota law does not clearly say no.

There is no South Dakota statute that prohibits installing a tracking device on another person's vehicle. The legislature has never enacted one, and no tracking device bill made it through the sessions leading up to 2026. An ex who hides an AirTag in a bumper has not committed a device-placement crime in South Dakota the way they would in Minnesota, Iowa, or most other states.

That does not make tracking risk-free. If the device is part of a repeated pattern of following or harassing, it can support a stalking charge. Federal law also applies no matter what the state code says.

But the gap is real, and it falls hardest on victims. A police officer looking at a single discovered tracker, with nothing else, often has no South Dakota crime to charge.

South Dakota Has No Tracking Device Law

A majority of states now have a statute that directly addresses electronic tracking devices. Some make unauthorized placement a standalone crime. Others write GPS tracking into their stalking laws by name.

South Dakota has done neither. The stalking chapter, SDCL chapter 22-19A, never mentions tracking devices, GPS, or electronic location monitoring. The core stalking section, SDCL 22-19A-1, was last amended in 2020 (Session Laws 2020, chapter 83), and that amendment added no tracking language. The chapter itself has been touched more recently: the 2026 Legislature added SDCL 22-19A-10.1 and SDCL 22-19A-11.1 (Session Laws 2026, chapter 102), but both deal with sealing the court file on a dismissed or denied protection order petition, not with tracking.

So the legality of planting a tracker in South Dakota turns entirely on indirect theories: stalking if there is a repeated course of conduct, trespass if the installer entered private property to plant it, or a civil privacy lawsuit after the fact.

When Tracking Might Count as Stalking (SDCL 22-19A-1)

The only realistic criminal hook is the stalking statute. SDCL 22-19A-1 makes it a crime to do any of three things:

1. Willfully, maliciously, and repeatedly follow or harass another person
2. Make a credible threat to another person with the intent to place them in reasonable fear of death or great bodily injury
3. Willfully, maliciously, and repeatedly harass another person by means of any verbal, electronic, digital media, mechanical, telegraphic, or written communication

Notice the problem. The third prong covers electronic communication, but a GPS tracker does not communicate anything to the victim. It silently reports the victim's location to the stalker. That leaves prosecutors with the first prong: arguing that electronically monitoring someone's movements amounts to repeatedly following or harassing them.

That argument can work when the tracker is one piece of a larger pattern. Someone who plants a device, then shows up wherever the victim goes, sends unwanted messages, and ignores requests to stop is plainly engaged in a course of conduct. The tracker becomes powerful evidence of willfulness and malice.

It works far less well for a tracker standing alone. "Repeatedly" requires more than one act. Constitutionally protected activity is carved out as well, though indirectly: SDCL 22-19A-5 excludes it from the definition of "course of conduct," which reaches the offense through the definition of "harasses" in SDCL 22-19A-4, so the carve-out limits the harassment theory rather than the separate following prong. A single device, discovered before any confrontation happens, may never have produced the repeated following or harassing the statute demands.

Who Can Legally Track a Vehicle in South Dakota

Because there is no tracking statute, the practical rules come from ownership and consent:

• Your own vehicle. You can put a tracker on a car titled in your name, including one your spouse or teen driver uses.
• Jointly owned vehicles. A co-owner placing a tracker on a shared car is on firm ground as far as the criminal code goes, though tracking a spouse during a divorce can still backfire in family court.
• Parents. A parent tracking a minor child's vehicle or backpack faces no South Dakota prohibition.
• Fleet and business vehicles. Companies can track vehicles they own.
• Police. Law enforcement is the one group with a clear rule. Under United States v. Jones, 565 U.S. 400 (2012), attaching a GPS device to a vehicle and using it to monitor movements is a Fourth Amendment search, so officers generally need a warrant.

Can My Employer Track My Car in South Dakota?

South Dakota has no statute restricting employer GPS tracking. No law requires notice, consent, or any limit on tracking company-owned vehicles.

If you drive an employer-owned vehicle, assume it can be tracked at any time, on or off the clock. If your employer wants to put a tracker on your personal car, no South Dakota statute squarely forbids it either, though tracking an employee's private vehicle without consent invites a civil invasion of privacy claim and is rare for that reason.

The practical advice for employees is simple: read your handbook, ask whether telematics are installed, and treat a company vehicle as monitored.

AirTags and Item Trackers

Apple AirTags, Tiles, and similar Bluetooth trackers are treated no differently than full GPS units under South Dakota law, which is to say they are not treated at all.

Dropping an AirTag into someone's bag or wheel well is not a device crime in South Dakota. It becomes legally significant only if it is part of repeated following or harassing under SDCL 22-19A-1, or if it crosses state lines into federal stalking territory under 18 U.S.C. 2261A.

Apple and Google have built their own partial fix. iPhones and Android phones now alert users when an unknown tracker is moving with them, and the tracker can be made to play a sound. For South Dakotans, that notification system is, in practice, a stronger protection than the state code.

Penalties for Stalking in South Dakota

When tracking conduct does qualify as stalking, the penalties under chapter 22-19A look like this:

Federal charges under 18 U.S.C. 2261A carry far heavier penalties, starting at up to 5 years in prison, when the conduct involves interstate travel or interstate electronic surveillance that causes fear or substantial emotional distress.

Civil Options and Protection Orders

South Dakota gives tracking victims two civil tools, even when no crime can be charged.

Stalking protection orders. The remedy sits in the same chapter as the criminal statute. SDCL 22-19A-8 creates a petition for a protection order in cases of stalking, available against any person who violates SDCL 22-19A-1, and the standard forms are prepared by the attorney general and available from the clerk of the circuit court. Under SDCL 22-19A-12, a judge can issue a temporary ex parte order lasting thirty days when the supporting affidavit shows that immediate and irreparable injury, loss, or damage is likely before the other side can be heard. After notice and a hearing, SDCL 22-19A-11 lets the court grant relief for a fixed period of up to five years if it finds by a preponderance of the evidence that stalking occurred. Violating a protection order is a Class 1 misdemeanor under SDCL 22-19A-16, and a Class 6 felony if the violating conduct also constitutes an assault. Stalking that violates a protection order is separately a felony under SDCL 22-19A-2.

Chapter 21-65 is a different remedy and is often confused with this one. It is titled "Protection of Vulnerable Adults," and SDCL 21-65-1(15) limits it to a "vulnerable adult," meaning a person sixty-five or older who is unable to protect himself or herself from abuse as a result of age or a mental or physical condition, or an adult with a disability as defined in SDCL 22-46-1. It is not the general stalking protection-order remedy, so a stalking victim who does not meet that definition should petition under SDCL 22-19A-8 instead. Our guide to South Dakota restraining orders walks through the filing process.

Invasion of privacy lawsuits. South Dakota courts recognize the tort of intrusion upon seclusion. Secretly monitoring someone's movements with a hidden device is the kind of highly offensive intrusion the tort was built for, and a victim can sue the person who planted the tracker for damages. There is no state privacy act to lean on, so this common law claim is the main civil route.

What to Do If You Find a Tracker on Your Car

1. Do not destroy it. The device is evidence, and it may be the only physical proof of who is tracking you.
2. Photograph it in place. Capture where it was hidden before touching anything.
3. Call local police or the sheriff. Even if no device crime exists, a report creates a paper record that matters if the conduct escalates into chargeable stalking.
4. Think about who had access. Trackers are usually planted by someone close: a current or former partner, a family member, or a coworker.
5. Consider a stalking protection order. If you know or strongly suspect who planted it, you can petition the circuit court under SDCL 22-19A-8. Ask the clerk of courts for the standard protection order forms. A judge can issue a thirty-day emergency order without notice to the other side under SDCL 22-19A-12, and after a hearing the court can order protection for up to five years under SDCL 22-19A-11. A victim advocate can help you prepare the petition.
6. Check your devices too. Physical trackers often travel with phone spyware and shared account access. Review your iCloud or Google account, location sharing, and phone for unfamiliar apps.

If your situation involves cameras rather than trackers, see our guides to surveillance camera laws and South Dakota recording laws.

Sources

• SDCL 22-19A-1, Stalking, violation as misdemeanor
• SDCL 22-19A-2, Stalking in violation of a protection order as a felony
• SDCL 22-19A-3, Stalking, violent second or subsequent conviction as a Class 5 felony
• SDCL 22-19A-4, Harasses defined
• SDCL 22-19A-5, Course of conduct defined
• SDCL 22-19A-7, Stalking a child twelve or younger as felony
• SDCL 22-19A-8, Petition for protection order, procedures
• SDCL 22-19A-10.1, Petition for protection order, dismissal without hearing, sealing of court file
• SDCL 22-19A-11, Relief granted by protection order, duration
• SDCL 22-19A-12, Ex parte temporary protection order pending hearing
• SDCL 22-19A-16, Protection order, violation, penalty
• SDCL 21-65-1, Definitions, Protection of Vulnerable Adults chapter
• United States v. Jones, 565 U.S. 400 (2012), slip opinion
• 18 U.S.C. 2261A, federal stalking statute

Disclaimer: This article is general legal information, not legal advice. Statutes change and their application depends on the facts of each case. If you are dealing with GPS tracking, stalking, or a protection order in South Dakota, consult a licensed South Dakota attorney. If you are in immediate danger, call 911.

More South Dakota Laws

• South Dakota Dashcam Laws
• South Dakota Data Privacy Laws
• South Dakota Drone Laws
• South Dakota Employee Monitoring Laws
• South Dakota Recording Laws
• South Dakota Restraining Order Laws