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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?
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.
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.
"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.
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.
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.