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San Bernardino Sheriff Has Used Stingray Over 300 Times With No Warrant
An anonymous reader writes: After a records request by Ars, the sheriff in San Bernardino County (SBSD) sent an example of a template for a "pen register and trap and trace order" application. The county attorneys claim what they sent was a warrant application template, even though it is not. The application cites no legal authority on which to base the request. "This is astonishing because it suggests the absence of legal authorization (because if there were clear legal authorization you can bet the government would be citing it)," Fred Cate, a law professor at Indiana University, told Ars. "Alternatively, it might suggest that the government just doesn't care about legal authorization. Either interpretation is profoundly troubling," he added. Further documents reveal that the agency has used a Stingray 303 times between January 1, 2014 and May 7, 2015.
Is an apparent law enforcement officer (or group thereof) who is conducting their work illegally, really a law enforcement officer?
That's all.
Stingray interception should be compared against SSL interception.
In both cases there are useful arguments about ensuring government does not have mas intercept laws but ultimately (as with SSL) if it is possible there is no way we will be able to know it isn't being done, unless we start dumping the old protocols and making such interception impossible (as is happening with SSL)...
I always assumed that the exception to anti-wiretapping laws for pen registers was some kind of case law.
But not only is 18 USC 3121 is a specific law about pen registers, looking at 18 USC 3127 and the definitions that are incorporated from 18 USC 2510 , it's clearly intended to include radio communications.
For radio that's "readily accessible to the general public" the interception and disclosure rules have an exception, as you might expect, but no sign of that sort of thing in this pen register law.
Cool.
Looking at the activities of the police and security organs in the US from abroad, one gets the feeling that US is a typical fascistic country.
Basically in fascism the state works for the big businesses, the security services ignore laws they do not want to follow and there is commonly widespread spying on the population.
All those seem to be true at least to some degree, it is hard to judge how far gone/wide spread it is, but seems true nevertheless.
Points of note:
At least NSA and local police spying on the people without the proper laws/procedures.
The huge campaign contributions from corporations needed to get into national office, I doubt they do it from goodness of their hearts.
Police often killing unarmed people(this is the things I am least sure about how common it is really, but in 2014 apparently about 1 of every 500 000 people living in US was killed by the police according to statistics)
They ARE the LAW.
Either the company who sells this, or the agencies using this, have convinced themselves they live in a special area of law in which reality is as they have decided it to be.
They do not care if other people say they have no legal basis for this, they either don't care, or believe they do have a legal basis for this.
Which basically means law enforcement is in the hands of a bunch of idiots who don't know or care the law.
American law enforcement have become like the police in a banana republic ... they'll do whatever the hell they wish, and if you don't like it, they'll probably try to find some way to abuse the law against you.
But make no mistake about it, these people aren't going to obey the law unless until they find themselves under threat of being in a cell themselves. And then they'll just pretend to obey the law.
Law enforcement now believes they can do anything they want to achieve their ends. Because they're idiots who don't know or care about the law.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
They should be in jail then. If I got caught running something like a stingray without any legal authority, I'd expect to not pass go or collect my $200. If that's never a concern for them, then this behavior should be expected.
For us uninformed, please tell us what in hell Stingray is.
If Rand Paul gets elected is it likely that he will put to jail dozens of so called LEO, from various agencies, who have infringed 4th amendment on wholesale basis?
Also, if people are so concerned about civil rights, and Patriot act is about to expire in a week, where are the teams waiting to arrest, perform citizens arrests, of those officers who continue owning Stingrays. Please keep in mind Stingrays will be illegal on June 1st. They are illegal now, but Patriot Act lapse will tear down the last leave of fig.
"Alternatively, it might suggest that the government just doesn't care about legal authorization."
As a resident of San Bernardino county (for 15+ years) who has personally known many members of the Sheriff's Department, I'd suggest that this is indeed the case. This county is the largest in the nation and has population widely dispersed throughout a vast majority of it's area, making deployment difficult. The attitude I saw most prevalent was one of "I don't care, just get it done". A perceived relative lack of equipment and manpower coupled with this attitude means that corners get cut and protocols are ignored.
They do, however, and more often then not, get the job done.
Looks like they used a warrant to me. TFA is claiming the warrant is invalid because it fails to cite a relevant legal authority. That may be, I'm no lawyer. But that title... it's outrage-bait, and it seems to me everyone swallowed it so far.
A more accurate title would be 'with an invalid warrant', which indicates an error rather than outright defiance of the law.
There are plenty of reasons to be scornful of stingray usage without manufacturing outrage.
What they dont tell you those early analog stingrays got loose bad and they went stoner special bigtime. but then im pretty sure hint and innuendo dot already knows that.
Set up a video camera and he get's tazed once for every time he violated the law. This video is posted to youtube.
Scumbag cops like that dont care about fines, They need to be tazed in the scrotum. THAT they will understand.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
everywhere on the internet you see young people bemoaning the constant breaches of civil rights by our government officials and police.
You don't really understand what is going here. Aren't you lucky to have me to explain it to you?
Look, all these things with civil rights and warrants and etc are really more or less an outgrowth of the civil rights era and the overclass educated culture that gave rise to that civil rights era.
And, please, do not lecture me on the constitution. I am a lawyer. I know all about it. But in reality, in practice, in america, the whole civil rights things with warrants and all that, that was never really all that much a part of everyday life in america before about the 1950s or so.
You have to understand something--the overclass culture dominates america. And the overclass culture was born of and deeply influenced by the needs and desires of the overclass and by the ivy league college culture, which was in general a product of Capital, of the overclass wealth.
Capital Buys Labor.
Labor Sells Labor.
This is fundamental.
The overclass buys labor. This is fundamental.
And so the overclass culture takes the viewpoint of those who buy labor. I am talking about the situation 100 years ago, give or take.
Academia was born to justify the needs and desires of the overclass, of Capital.
Capital wants cheaper labor.
And so academia delivered.
Academia created propaganda to allow Capital to get cheaper labor.
That was what the civil rights era was all about--expanding the pool of available labor, thus depressing wages and thus increasing overclass profits.
The civil rights era was created to increase the supply of labor.
Academia delivered that by creating a hyper-awareness of civil rights.
Warrants, controls on police, etc were a tool created by academia for overclass.
Civil rights allowed the overclass to stop the white working class majority from keeping nonwhites out of the labor pool and out of the neighborhoods.
The white working class was using the police to keep nonwhites out of the labor pool.
The overclass shaped and molded the legal culture in order to stop the white working class from using police to keep nonwhites out of the workforce and neighborhoods.
So all this stuff about warrants and civil rights was just part of the overclass war on white working class attempts to keep nonwhites out of the labor pool.
The overclass has now own. They have expanded the supply of labor via racial integration and mass immigration and thus suppressed wage growth.
They have won.
So now the overclass has little use for civil rights.
And in fact the civil rights legal culture is now an impediment in the overclass attempts to stop terrorists from depresssing property values and GDP via terrorism.
So, you were always a pawn in the overclass game. But you never knew it. And you will not even believe what I say. So just go back to your ruminations and ignore this.
Because what I say here is too far outside the realm of your knowledge for you to integrate into your brain.
posting at http://leftistconservative.blogspot.com
According to Smith v. Maryland, Law enforcement doesn't need a warrant for pen registers, because people have no expectation of privacy in the numbers they called. That one decision has led to the entire NSA metadata collection, as well as unrestrained use of Stingrays and similar devices. Remember that next time someone sneers at the slippery slope.
Honestly, it's amusing to think about this but not likely to happen. What should happen, legally, is he should either be dismissed from his position, charged, or both.
Unfortunately this is about as likely to occur as said testicle-tasing.
This is astonishing because it suggests the absence
of legal authorization (because if there were clear legal authorization
you can bet the government would be citing it),"
Law enforcement can still conduct an illegal search to further their investigation. They cannot use evidence in court that they directly discovered as a result of the search; However, they can still use the information to help develop their investigation, And once they've found what they think is the truth, they will be able to leverage a practice called parallel construction to develop their case: without needing to make their illegal search or evidence that came from their search part of the case.
The challenge, and the difficulty is.... our legal system doesn't provide any way to challenge actions by law enforcement: there is no way for a citizen to pursue action against the police department.
It's as if you need an additional prosecutor and an additional police department whose job is solely to investigate and monitor the police, And who the primary police department must submit all reports and bodycam footage to.
Called Wanda.
As at my own office, I have so many templates for requests, transfers and changes, that I duplicate and triplicate work frequently, use the wrong form often, and spend very little time doing my actual job. (which, astonishingly, is construction) I bet these paperwork pirates have caused everyone to do things wrong all over the place.