History Main / TrackingDevice

* ''Series/Siren2018'': Maddie gives Ryn a pendant with one inside so they can know her location during "On the Road".

* ''Franchise/TheDCU'':
** Often used by ComicBook/{{Batman}}. If he doesn't want them to know who's tracking them, they're small, black, and anonymous. Most of the time, though, he does want the target to know; that's when he breaks out the ones with the bat logo or that are shaped like a bat.
** ''ComicBook/TheKillersOfKrypton'': As ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'s ship is being repaired on planet Mogo, [[BigBad Empress Gandelo]]'s minion C'Zal hides a tracking device aboard her ship which lets Gandelo track Supergirl through the galaxy.
* ''ComicBook/{{Futurama}:'' Fry has a tracking device stuck up his nose as a result of a bet he and Bender once had. Bender uses it to find the Professor in Fry's body when he's abducted by Wernstrom.

* ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'':
** ComicBook/BlackWidow's gauntlets can fire tracking devices. They were inspired by Spidey's web-shooters InUniverse.
** Commonly used by ComicBook/SpiderMan, usually ones with a "spider" theme or mark. It was a ''Spider-Man'' comic that [[https://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/06/24/when-spider-man-invented-electronic-tagging/ led]] to the invention of electronic tagging.

[[caption-width-right:247:...Not exactly...]]

* ''Series/LineOfDuty'': In Series 6, it turns out that the Chief Constable ordered trackers placed on all AC-12 vehicles, letting them quickly locate Jo and Kate after they go on the run, as they're being driving one which Steve provided with keys for an emergency.

* In ''Manga/CountCain'', [[spoiler: Cain's earring]] works like this in a steampunky kind of way, being made of a special stone that causes a larger piece of it to resonate whenever in proximity.

* ''Literature/IsItWrongToTryToPickUpGirlsInADungeon'': When Sanjouno Haruhime is enslaved by Ishtar, she wears a collar that allows Ishtar and her minions to know where she is at all times.

* The Marauders in ''Fanfic/TheRigelBlackChronicles'' start selling "teacher trackers", intended to be stuck to a teacher's clothing so that enterprising students can avoid them. Draco becomes suspicious of "Rigel's" frequent brief bathroom visits and uses one to try to work out what's really going on, but is confused when the tracking map shows multiple hits at once (due to Harry's Time Turner usage, which was also the reason she kept ducking away for a minute). [[spoiler: It saves Harry's life when she's kidnapped and Draco is able to track her down.]]

* ''Film/{{Cliffhanger}}'' involves a mid-air heist of several cases of thousand dollar bills, but things go wrong and the crates are dumped in the Rocky Mountains. Fortunately they have tracking devices attached (in case of a plane crash) so the villains kidnap some mountain rescue climbers to help track them down, setting up the plot. [[spoiler:At one point, the heroes put a tracking device on a rabbit to send the villains off on a false trail.]]

* In ''Literature/TheStrangerTimes'', Grace asks Ox to set up a tracker on [[TroubledTeen Stella’s]] phone, in case she runs away again. It comes in handy when [[spoiler: Stella is kidnapped and the group needs to find her.]] Ox also arranges to plant a tracker on a person of interest’s car in the second book.

** "The Joker's Flying Saucer": When Alfred is forced to help the Joker assemble the flying saucer, he puts several Bat tracking signals inside the saucer so Batman can learn its location after it lands.
** "Batman Stands Pat": The Mad Hatter is kidnapping members of the jury that convicted him and stealing their hats. Batman has Alfred plant a Bat Homing Transmitter in the hat of the last juror so he can trace the Mad Hatter's location when he steals the hat.
** "The Penguin Declines": The female villain Venus deserts the Joker and falls in love with Batman. However, the Joker anticipated that she would do so and planted a tacking signal in her shoe. He later uses the signal to find Venus's location and send the Penguin (?!) to seduce her.

** Willow's oft-used "locator spells."

* Used in ''Series/TheCityHunter'': Young-ju bugs the [[VigilanteMan City Hunter]] during their first fight. Yun Sung later bugs the [[spoiler: stolen 2 million dollars]] in [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Kim Jong-shik's]] house.

** In "Against All Odds" it turns out Birdie had used a tracker to know where her daughter Ollie is. Later on Ollie puts this into Daphne's purse instead, which lets her movements be tracked for Charlie and Birdie to discover later. This reveals Daphne met crime bosses all around the US.
** In "The Art of the Steel" it turns out Birdie has placed a tracker on her dad Leo's phone so she can tell where he is, given [[ScatterBrainedSenior his dementia]] might make him get lost.
* ''Series/CowboyBebop2021''.
** In "Callisto Soul", Faye Valentine steals the Swordfish (along with Ein) but is quickly tracked down by Spike and Jet even though she deactivated the tracker. Turns out Spike has more than one on his personal ship.
** In "Galileo Hustle", Faye's "mother" Whitney has taken refuge on the ''[=BeBop=]'' from her psycho husband. Jet finds a tracking device hidden in her wedding ring, so Spike and Jet take the wedding ring with them to misdirect the mooks sent after her, leading them being [[MistakenForGay mistaken for a gay couple]] when they start arguing LikeAnOldMarriedCouple while wearing the ring.
* ''Series/Daredevil2015''

* In ''Series/{{Healer}}'' most of the tracking devices are very small and well disguised like the ones in Jung Hoo's watch and necklace. The tracking devices he attaches to cars are rather [[IncrediblyObviousBug conspicuous things]] about the size of a nickle with a small blinking red light. This is probably just so that the audience doesn't need it spelled out for them what he's doing every time he uses one.

* In the ''Series/{{Leverage}}'' episode "The Stork Job", Hardison reveals when Parker goes off on her own that he put a GPS tracker in her shoes. It's implied that he keeps tabs on the entire team this way all the time. He also often uses the various [[EarpieceConversation magical earpieces]] that they have for this purpose as well. Fitting this trope those devices are sufficiently small that there is no way that they could ever really work.
* ''Series/LineOfDuty'': In Series 6 it turns out the Chief Constable ordered trackers placed on all AC-12 vehicles, letting them quickly locate Jo and Kate after they go on the run as they're been driving one which Steve provided with keys for an emergency.

* In the ''Series/MiamiVice'' episode "Tale of the Goat," Tubbs attaches a tracking device to the underside of a truck he's riding in. It falls off, and when Crockett tries to follow him, he finds the device lying in the road.

* ''Series/OnceUponATime'': Bo Peep, who was a warlord in the Enchanted Forest, "branded" her victims with magic, which allowed her to use her shepherd's crook to track her victims. In Storybrooke, [[spoiler: David used the crook in an attempt to locate [[WesternAnimation/Frozen2013 Anna]]; while he couldn't get a fix on her, the crook did register her heartbeat, indicating that Anna is still alive.]]

* ''Series/PersonOfInterest''

** Though they still fall victim to them on more than one occasion. Notably Root and the FBI each manage find them at different points. Root with a classical tracking device, and the FBI by a brute force attack on their phone system.

* ''Series/TheProfessionals''. In "Servant Of Two Masters", Cowley has fallen under suspicion of corruption and Bodie and Doyle are ordered to investigate. At one point they are leaning on Cowley's car as he briefs them for their next assignment, causing them to stumble when he abruptly drives off. Bodie then smirks that he got his own back by using the opportunity to plant a 'bleeper' on the car. Cowley however switches cars as a routine precaution, forcing Bodie to follow him the old-fashioned way. The same trick is used in "The Acorn Syndrome", and Bodie barely has time to attach a bleeper to the second vehicle as it drives off.

* Used on an episode of ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' so JD can track and avoid the [[AlmightyJanitor Janitor]].
* ''Series/{{Search1972}}'': The EverythingSensor given to agents of World Securities relay a wealth of data to Probe Control, including that agent's location. "The 24 Carat Hit" has Agent Bianco reveal this device's weakness: if any two devices come into proximity, their signals will overlap, blurring their precise location.

** In ''Series/StarTrekPicard'', Commodore Oh gives Jurati a tracking device which she's actually required to chew before swallowing, causing it to dissolve into her body. When she realises a hostile spacecraft is using it to track them, [[StressVomit her first urge is to vomit]] (she was also PostStressOvereating at the time). This has no effect, so she injects herself with a lethal neurotoxin to neutralize the tracking agent. Fortunately her colleagues are able to revive her.
* ''Series/Titans2018''

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In "Profile in Silver", time travelers such as Professor Joseph Fitzgerald and Dr. Kate Wang are issued with homing devices in the form of a ring. When the homing device is separated from the temporal wrist controls worn by the time traveler, the wearer of the ring is automatically returned to their point of departure. Fitzgerald uses this to send UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy [[TimeTravelEscape forward in time to 2172 so that he doesn't have to be assassinated]].

* ''Series/TheWire'': The opening of the second season episode "Storm Warnings" is a HardWorkMontage where we see, among other things, members of the Major Crimes Unit hanging tracking devices on vehicles owned by their latest targets.

* ''[[TabletopGame/BattlelordsOfTheTwentyThirdCentury Battlelords of the 23rd Century]]'' supplement ''Lock-N-Load: The Battlelord's War Manual''. The Electronic Tracer Device has an adhesive strip that allows it to be secured to an object, such as a vehicle. It broadcasts a low frequency radio signal for up to 120 hours that can be detected up to 7 kilometers away.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Champions}}'' Organization Book 2 ''PRIMUS and DEMON''. The included adventure notes that PRIMUS (an anti-villain U.S. Government agency) puts a transponder inside all captured supervillain devices to assist in tracking them down if they go missing.
* Iron Crown Enterprises ''TabletopGame/{{Cyberspace}}'' main rules

* ''TabletopGame/DCHeroes''. One piece of equipment characters can buy is a "tracer", a small radio transmitter that sends out a steady signal that can be picked up by a receiver. It has a maximum range of 5 miles.

* ''TabletopGame/VictorianaRPG'' supplement ''Faulkner's Millinery and Miscellanea''. One possible Complication (drawback) for a magical clockwork limb is a tracer device implanted in it, which allows someone to know where you are at all times.

** ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' has Miranda [[spoiler: plant a tracer on Kai Leng on Sanctuary, leading Shepard directly to Cerberus's main base]]. The spoiler for ''2'' is also revealed to be [[spoiler: fairly irrelevant. Even if blown up, enough of the base remains that Cerberus undertakes major salvage operations and some degree of indoctrination and so on happens anyway]].

[[folder:Web Original]]

* A smaller-scale form of tracking can be used to find a misplaced cell phone by calling it so that it rings or using an app to make its alarm tone go off and then following the sound.

* Tracking fobs play an important role in ''Series/TheMandalorian'', used by {{Bounty Hunter}}s (including the title character) to track their targets. Each one is capable of homing on a target with great accuracy as long as they've been programmed with enough data, called the "chain code," and returning the fob is the customary way of saying the hunter has released his bounty to someone else's custody.

* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' sometimes uses various kinds of trackers, including tracking powder [[spoiler:(got in the vent system of the building)]].

** In "Against All Odds" it turns out Birdie had used a tracker to know where her daughter Ollie is. Later on Ollie puts this into Daphne's purse instead, which lets her movements be tracked for Charlie and Birdie to discover later, which reveals she met crime bosses around the US.

[[quoteright:248:[[ComicBook/SpiderMan https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/spideytracer.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:248:...Not exactly...]]

[[quoteright:248:[[ComicBook/SpiderMan https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/spideytracer.jpg]]]]

* Franziska plants one of these on her incompetent detective partner Gumshoe in ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney: Justice for All'', much to Gumshoe's displeasure.

* ''LightNovel/IsItWrongToTryToPickUpGirlsInADungeon'': When Sanjouno Haruhime is enslaved by Ishtar, she wears a collar that allows Ishtar and her minions to know where she is at all times.

* ''Series/TheCompanyYouKeep'': In "Against All Odds" it turns out Birdie had used a tracker to know where her daughter Ollie is. Later on Ollie puts this into Daphne's purse instead, which lets her movements be tracked for Charlie and Birdie to discover later, which reveals she met crime bosses around the US.

** Tracking devices are also mentioned every once in a while, some made by Whateley students, as well, such as in [[http://whateleyacademy.net/index.php/content_page/9-original-canon/821-imp-5-head-over-tail-part-2 Original Canon - Imp 5 Head over Tail (Part 2)]]. Others are made by the Academy, like the tracking device that Reverend Englund [[http://whateleyacademy.net/index.php/content_page/9-original-canon/446-insanity-prerequisite-part-4 wanted]] Sara to wear. [[http://whateleyacademy.net/index.php/forumscomm/speculation-101-story-arcs/1112-professional-courtesy Profession Courtesy]] also mentions them.
** The [[Characters/WhateleyUniverseSchoolClubsAndCliques Intelligence Cadet Corps]] deserve special mention, as they get into serious trouble more than once for their indiscriminate bugging of the Bad Seeds... and the Masterminds... and the Literary Club... and some of the teachers who were former supervillains... and their own faculty advisors... It was pointed out to them that the main effect of their spying was to give the potential supervillain students an excellent education in how to ''avoid'' being tracked.