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.

Comments

TIL about wiretapping without wires

[rakslice]

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.

Re:TIL about wiretapping without wires

[msauve]

Note that Stingrays aren't just radio receivers. They mimic cell towers, and are also transmitters. They transmit on spectrum which belongs to the cell carriers, and they do so without a license or warrant. That's illegal.

Also, cell frequencies aren't "readily accessible to the general public" - Congress has passed laws which specifically prohibit the public from accessing those frequencies and prohibits the manufacture of general purpose radios (scanners) which can receive them.