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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.
That attitude isn't uncommon among business executives either. They also know that the name if their game is to lie, bribe, cheat, and steal because the one thing they can't stand is a fair society where everybody has a reasonable chance.
That's why they buy governments, and of course we continue to elect officials who can be bought. You don't think the stingray devices are used anywhere in the country in support of investigations into corruption in government or business do you? They're used as part of continuing operations to keep regular people in line.
This has got to stop.
From the moment the young LEO is put into a cruiser to enforce traffic laws he himself doesn't have to obey, there is an expectation of the "rules do not apply to me."
This is the way of it. Thanks to the FOIA, conscientious questioners of authority like Ars, and the Courts, we are not beholden to live in a police state unless we choose to sit around and accept it. Legislation to restrict the use of these Stinkrays has already been employed in Washington State and a bill is brewing in California.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
I always assumed that the exception to anti-wiretapping laws for pen registers was some kind of case law.
I speaking from readings of Australian law as it seems we are on the leading edge of destroying the freedom and point of western democracies, however my understanding of the parallel US Act is that this right would have been repealed in the Patriot Act or another act shortly after that one. Specifically US law should now allow for wire-taps/voice-mail/sms and email surveillance without an 'interception warrant' regardless of any case law before 2001. I don't know for sure, but I'd be very surprised if US law doesn't allow the same. Of course it was only meant for Intelligence agencies to us against terrorist operations.
It seems because we don't have a bill of rights like the US or UK the laws get framed here, tested, passed and then the US/UK take out the unconstitutional bits and pass that. I note that the fucked laws passed here because the population are largely apathetic, then they seem to make it to the US/UK lawmakers roughly a year later.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
Isn't this the thing the Second amendment was supposed to prevent?
As I understand it, the 2nd Amendment was supposed to ensure against invasion from the British Empire by keeping the population armed, so any attempt at invasion would allow the armed population to spark a popular insurrection.
I think the founders also feared the power (both militarily and politically) of a large standing army. If the US is invaded, armed locals operating as militia can either harry the invaders or supplement the small professional army for local engagements.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil