The government spies on incarcerated citizens who use illegal cellphones in correctional facilities. Those aren’t the only people government officials spy on. They are also listening to and tracking free citizens, according to Criminal Legal News (CLN).
The technology used is called a cell-site simulator, also called a “stingray.” This device directs a cellphone to connect to it instead of a cell tower.
“Police operating the devices can track the location of all connected cellphones within a certain radius, and also can potentially intercept metadata about calls,”CLN reported. This includes call duration, the number that was called, text messages, information on data usage such as browser information, and the content of calls. “All of this takes place unbeknownst to users whose cellphones have been hijacked.”
According to CLN, as of 2016, there were 23 states and the District of Columbia with law enforcement agencies that were using cell-site simulators. It also stated that the Cato Institute reported federal agencies using stingray technology, including the FBI, ATF, ICE, DEA, U.S. Marshals Service, NSA, DHS and the IRS.
“Concerns over their use have been met with silence from police and prosecutors,”CLN reported. “In some cases, prosecutors have gone so far as to dismiss criminal charges to avoid disclosing any information about stingray use.”
It was reported that the FBI is the agency that coordinates the sale and use of stingray technology; one of the requirements for local law enforcement to use the technology is to accept a comprehensive nondisclosure agreement (NDA).
“The (NDA) requires police and prosecutors to refuse to hand over information about stingray technology or usage to defense attorneys and judges alike,”CLN reported, adding that the device can “hijack a cellphone and force it to report in to the government, all while it sits quietly in an unsuspecting user’s pocket.”
According to CLN, law enforcement agencies will sometimes deny the existence of an NDA.
The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees people the right to “be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures.”
“Cell-site simulators are an example of how new technology can be leveraged to skirt constitutional limitations on the power of the police,”CLN said, adding there are a lot of law enforcement agencies that do not have a policy on officers use of this technology.
CLN reported, however, that Harvard Law School published in its July 2016 issue of National Security Journal that law enforcement in the U.S. has for a long time used stingrays to run roughshod over the Fourth Amendment.
“This is because law enforcement agencies and device manufactures have gone to great lengths to keep information about stingray capabilities, and use, secret,”CLN reported.
According to CLN, a 2016 report by The Daily Dot revealed cell-site simulators were developed more than 20 years ago by the Harris Corporation, the Pentagon and federal intelligence agencies. It was used for military technology.
The website USASpending.gov, according to CLN, reported Harris Corporation receiving $3.6 million in federal funding; in 2017, it had more than 2,000 federal contracts.
The American Civil Liberties Union, according to CLN, has created a list of about 300 cases that it believes used stingray technology.
“The real concern is that local law enforcement agencies are using these devices to investigate all kinds of crimes, often without going through the traditional procedures required prior to a search, namely seeking a warrant,” CLN said.
The CLN article said, “Police technology will continue to become more expansive and powerful, and the longer it takes legislatures and courts to produce a legal framework capable of keeping up with technology and ensuring that constitutional rights are protected, the more threatening the surveillance state will become.”
In a 2014 U.S. Supreme Court case, Riley v. California, Justice Samuel Alito wrote, “Legislatures, elected by the people, are in a better position than we are to assess and respond to the changes that have already occurred and those that almost certainly will take place in the future.”
https://sanquentinnew.wpengine.com/criminal-justice-technology/
https://sanquentinnew.wpengine.com/advocates-suffer-setback-dna-collection/
https://sanquentinnew.wpengine.com/cdcr-losing-battle-in-disrupting-cell-phones-in-prisons/
