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Cops Say NDA Kept Them from Notifying Courts About Cell Phone Tracking Gadget
schwit1 writes "Police in Florida have offered a startling excuse for having used a controversial 'stingray' cell phone tracking gadget 200 times without ever telling a judge: the device's manufacturer made them sign a non-disclosure agreement that they say prevented them from telling the courts. The shocking revelation, uncovered by the American Civil Liberties Union, came during an appeal over a 2008 sexual battery case in Tallahassee in which the suspect also stole the victim's cell phone. Using the stingray — which simulates a cell phone tower in order to trick nearby mobile devices into connecting to it and revealing their location — police were able to track him to an apartment."
I'm sorry, but what?
You broke the law because if you'd told the courts you'd be breaking an NDA with the company?
How the hell can a police force enter into a contract which expressly requires them to break the law?? What genius lawyer signed off on that one?
Oh, sorry your honor, we couldn't tell you we were violating the law because we signed a contract?
That's ridiculous.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
This is exactly a case where I am OK with tracking down the criminal through the cell phone. The warrant would absolutely have been granted if they bothered to ask for it.
FTA:
According to the appellate court judges, after a young woman reported on September 13, 2008 that she had been raped and that her purse, containing a cell phone, had been stolen, police tracked the location of her phone about 24 hours later to the apartment of Thomas’ girlfriend.
“The investigators settled on a specific apartment ‘shortly after midnight’ or ‘approximately 1:00 to 2:00 a.m.’ on September 14, 2008,” the court wrote. “For the next few hours, six or seven police officers milled around outside the apartment, but made no effort to obtain a search warrant.”
Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75. -Benjamin Franklin
Assuming the NDA can be held to apply in this case (which in fact it would not) -
Not being able to tell the court obviously precludes being able to ask them for authorization to use the device. This does NOT mean they can use it without authorization from a court, but in fact the exact opposite: the NDA would make it completely unusable, as they can't get that required authorization.
Just wow.
Indeed. If a contract requires you break the law, you are legally obligated to refuse to sign. Signing with the intent to obey the law would be fraud, and signing with the intent to break the law would be conspiracy to commit a crime.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
Additionally, using one of those boxes would require court approval. Perhaps not for a traditional search warrant, but certainly to allow the police, who are not licensees of the radio frequencies involved, to operate these intentional transmitters. And that probably means federal court approval.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
False. Illegal portions of the contract are not enforceable, and you simply are NOT required to do those parts. And if you knew they were not enforceable, then there is no conspiracy. This happens frequently.
To have a conspiracy you have to have some action taken in furtherance of the crime. Signing the contract and then also taking a step to further the illegal actions, then the contract proves intent. But only once they already have you in those other details.
"And if you knew they were not enforceable, then there is no conspiracy. This happens frequently.
But the police department is claiming they are enforceable. So by this logic, there is conspiracy, since they reasonably must have known it was not so. Not conspiracy with the other party, to be sure, but conspiracy to break the law.
To have a conspiracy you have to have some action taken in furtherance of the crime."
You mean like illegally tapping telephones then giving obviously bogus justifications to the court?
Additionally, using one of those boxes would require court approval. Perhaps not for a traditional search warrant, but certainly to allow the police, who are not licensees of the radio frequencies involved, to operate these intentional transmitters. And that probably means federal court approval.
No. Federal courts do not issue FCC licenses for radio use, the FCC does. Licensing the radios would not be subject to a warrant request. Courts, federal or local, don't have the technical expertise to issue radio licenses, nor do they have statutory authority.
It appears that running a microcell is no longer a huge issue with respect to licenses. This company will sell you a complete cell system in a box, needing only an IP connection. How they deal with licensing is not apparent from their website.
On the issue of using the "controversial device" to track the criminal in this case, I'm not so ready to jump on the "police broke the law" bandwagon. If someone steals my LoJack equipped car (or OnStar) the police do not need a warrant to get location information from either source. The criminal has no reasonable expectation of privacy related to the location of MY CAR after he's stolen it. Why would a criminal who steals a cell phone, which by it's very nature is inherently trackable, have such an expectation for a phone he's stolen? This is not a case of "locate Frank Smith so we can track his whereabouts whenever we want to", it's a case of "find the location of stolen property so we can recover it for the rightful owner." If they happen to find that stolen property in the possession of a criminal and can arrest him at the same time, that's a plus.