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In Baltimore and Elsewhere, Police Use Stingrays For Petty Crimes
USA Today reports on the widespread use of stingray technology by police to track down even petty criminals and witnesses, as well as their equally widespread reluctance to disclose that use. The article focuses mostly on the city of Baltimore; by cross-checking court records against a surveillance log from the city’s Advanced Technical Team, the USA Today reporters were able to determine at least several hundred cases in which phony ("simulated") cell phone towers were used to snoop traffic. In court, though, and even in the information that the police department provides to the city's prosecutors, the use of these devices is rarely disclosed, thanks to a non-disclosure agreement with the FBI and probably a general reluctance to make public how much the department is using them, especially without bothering to obtain search warrants. From the article:
In at least one case, police and prosecutors appear to have gone further to hide the use of a stingray. After Kerron Andrews was charged with attempted murder last year, Baltimore's State's Attorney's Office said it had no information about whether a phone tracker had been used in the case, according to court filings. In May, prosecutors reversed course and said the police had used one to locate him. "It seems clear that misrepresentations and omissions pertaining to the government's use of stingrays are intentional," Andrews' attorney, Assistant Public Defender Deborah Levi, charged in a court filing.
Judge Kendra Ausby ruled last week that the police should not have used a stingray to track Andrews without a search warrant, and she said prosecutors could not use any of the evidence found at the time of his arrest.
Judge Kendra Ausby ruled last week that the police should not have used a stingray to track Andrews without a search warrant, and she said prosecutors could not use any of the evidence found at the time of his arrest.
Yes. The victim was white.
Maybe we need to set up a bitcoin bounty for a stingray. I'd imagine reverse engineering it would reveal a wealth of information.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
If they're going to invade our privacy so deeply, it would be nice if they'd actually do something.
Right now, if you call the police, and tell them that someone broke into your house, they will respond and......write a report.
"Are you going to go find him?"
"No."
"But you have the fingerprints!"
"We'll put that in the report."
".........."
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
There is a very clear federal law making this a crime, so they absolutely could be charged, if a federal prosecutor chose to do so.
U.S. Code , Title 18 , Part II , Chapter 206. Â 3122 a) says that state and local law enforcement must get a court order before using a device which records which numbers are called.
Using such a device (called a pen register) without a court order is punishable by one year in jail.
I don't know if any charges have ever been brought under that paragraph, but they very easily could be. The law is pretty clear.
They deceive the court (by withholding vital information or by flat out lying), in order to uphold an EULA! So EULA > LAW
Surely that's the big crime here, those officers should not be accepting orders from the FBI to lie to a court. Its perjury or withholding evidence. Actual real crimes being committed.
It's like the parallel construction thing, call it Parallel Construction and it sounds positive. But its fabrication of evidence, an officer goes into court and lies about the chain of evidence to a judge, telling the judge a *different* chain of evidence led to the arrest. The officer learns confidence in telling lies to a court, knowing he will be backed by his police force!
And here we have the exact same principle, spying tech being used illegally to circumvent search warrants and due process and then lies being told in court to cover the illegal evidence trail.
That's an interesting point. There is a strong general presumption that anyone is allowed to RECIEVE anything transmitted over the airwaves. One good reason for that is that it's quite common to receive things on accident- a lot of night time "static" is in fact someone's communications.
HOWEVER, wireless phones have a two-way handshake with the tower. After receiving from the phone, the Stingray sends back "this is tower HJFG-7484. What are your parameters ", or something like that. By connecting with your phone and falsely claiming to be a phone-company tower, the Stingray os actively performing as a pen register. In fact, the Stingray probably sends to the phone "I have a call for you " in order to cause it to reveal it's current location. It would then send a disconnect before the phone started ringing audibly. That's all active snooping.
A different device would be one which only LISTENED to genuine communications between the phone and tower, decrypted the call metadata, and recorded it. Different laws would apply.
The story does mention the court ruled the use of a Stingray without a warrant is unconstitutional, so someone is doing their job.
Personally, I prefer to give money to the EFF rather than the ACLU since the ACLU advocates for racial discrimination, but everyone has their own opinions.
I find it very offensive that the ACLU says my daughter has to be given extra points in order to compete, because black people like her are too stupid to do well by their own talents and effort. That's a particularly nasty type of racism, in my view. I also think they are wrong to say that I should be denied admission in favor of someone less qualified because I happen to havevpale skin. That part bothers me much less than their patronizing attitude toward my wife and daughter, though, their belief that my wife and daughter can't manage without special favors and protection from snotty white people.