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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.
Reminds me of a Baltimore TV show. Now, what was it called?
When violating the Supreme Law of the Land means that none of the law-breakers involved get punished, it's clear that something has to be changed. Whether it takes an amendment or not, what needs to happen is that if you're so gung ho certain that you've got the right guy that you feel like you don't need to obey the law, well then go right ahead. That guy goes down for murder and you go down for violating the Constitution. Oh, you didn't have any guy so you went on a fishing expidition and you infringed the rights of 100 Americans looking for someone breaking the law? That's 100 counts.
small crimes committed against actual people are called "petty".
the entire reason free people form governments is to protect eachothers lives, liberties, and properties. the only legit purpose of law and enforcement is to handle actual crimes against actual people. and these are now "petty".
meanwhile, crimes against the state are major felonies.
so you are complaining, essentially saying that crime against the state is worthy of high-end investigation and high-dollar enforcement, while crimes against actual people (the whole reason for even having a government) in NBD and not worthy of such effort.
oh, also. if X is bad, X is not worse because blacks or ferguson. nice race-based-liberal-pageview grabbing.
They have a tool and they're going to use it.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
What's really shocking is that the police invested any effort in tracking down a mobile phone thief. The victim must have been someone with influence.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
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
According to this study, America is an oligarchy. Here is a quote (as per the New Yorker):
Americans do enjoy many features central to democratic governance, such as regular elections, freedom of speech and association, and a widespread (if still contested) franchise. But we believe that if policymaking is dominated by powerful business organizations and a small number of affluent Americans, then Americaâ(TM)s claims to being a democratic society are seriously threatened.
When I hear about abuses of power, when I hear about the NSA spying on everyone, when I hear about militarization of police, when I hear about local police departments running roughshod over the Constitution as implied in the parent article, I start to think that something is deeply wrong in America. Then I remember that Americans still have the right to vote in those who rule them. And that is encouraging. But then I realize that most Americans have lost the ability to comprehend the systems of power that rule them. I remember that too many Americans vote based on shallow ignorant views, that they are persuaded by 30 second political TV commercials instead of actual rational argument, which is boring and long and tedious. And I remember that those 30 second TV commercials are expensive, and that politicians must go begging to those with large amounts of money in order to buy those 30 second commercials. And I remember that when politicians accept money from those very wealthy interests, that they become enslaved to them. And this makes me feel hopeless.
Then I remember that if Americans stopped listening to shallow arguments given in 30 second TV commercials, if they started to demand rational argument instead of the shallow blather that has so far persuaded them, then they could take back power from the corrupt wealthy interests who have driven the country into the ground over the last three and a half decades. And that makes me a little bit hopeful.
This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when first he appears as a protector - Plato (423 to 327 BC)
We willingly gave up our freedoms, the minute the cell phone came to be, even more so with the "smartphone". Who actually reads the EULA when they install anything? Granted, the police sniffing using stingray is just another notch in the link of losing privacy, but they use the "what do you have to hide" idea, that apparently works so well, because people are nothing more than sheep. The (in the usa) constitution isn't taught any more, because it is an old document written by a bunch of "evil rich white slaveholders that destroyed the native Americans" or some other BS. The TSA has people "thinking" that you are safer to fly on an airliner, if you are treated as a criminal, but depending on your religious group ties, you may not even be searched, and, can get a "go on through" fast track. The USA, at least, is a post constitutional country. Probably in the next 10-15 years, or less, we'll just have a good old riot to touch everything off, or if the stock market keeps going, another depression like 1929, that touches off a good old fashioned reset...called a world war.
The cost of collecting it all is now down to a city, county, parishes, state.
Why just sell to nations when 100's of cities can be made to pay for device upgrades that keep track with cell phone hardware.
What was once used for one person over in a foreign country is now tracking all in very hidden domestic setting.
The real risk is who else is buying another set of hardware in the same area to run counter surveillance, use by internal affairs or for years of federal tracking of interesting local state law enforcement cell phone use and movements..
Anyone who can read about policing in Ireland in the 1980-90's, US and UK mil use in other nations in the media over the past decade can understand the ability to collect it all and sort later.
The trick about collect it all, mapping, voice prints ie content 'upgrade' package for all communications and sorting seems to solved at price points any well/federally funded US city can afford.
The magic seems to have been in fooling so many that cell systems are secure or that select phones where secure per every advancing hardware generation.
The question about "how long they’ve been using it" can still be best found by an in person/written FOIA depending on the state/city to see how easy it is to hide the old $400,000+ costs/grants, upgrade costs and work back over years.
At some point the federal/mil use stopped needing small aircraft or any local telco support. ie all aspects of the US telco network are open to mil/federal hardware, software needs. After that any city/state could buy in for $400,000+ with local hardware.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
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."
Yes look up IMSI catchers.
Under federal (U.S. Code â Title 18 â Part II â Chapter 206 â Â 3122 a), 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.
So it's not necessarily unconstitutional, but it's absolutely illegal, by the plain text of chapter 206.
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.
Totally doable. The last time this topic came up on SlashDot, I think the discussion included a pointer to an ap for rooted Androids (or at least some specific models) that could detect stingrays. So this could be easily crowdsourced... if enough people carried Stingray detectors, and automatically uploaded to a website the plotted them on a map, we could pretty much have a real-time map of stingrays in operation. The problem is more social than technical at this point.
And here is an insightful write-up on Stingrays (IMSI catchers). A good plain-terms read on how they function with a small dose of theory.
http://communications.support/...
Beware of the Leopard.
And why would you do that? Don't you want the police to catch petty criminals? All the device does is allow them to locate a specific cellphone. They don't listen to your calls, or know who you're calling - it just listens for the phone trying to connect to cell towers and then they triangulate a position. It's nothing the cellphone companies can't already do (and have done at the behest of the police on serious crimes), although it might be more precise and faster and easier. And we're not talking about situations where a warrant is needed, since they're not violating anyone's right to privacy. Why does everybody here want to protect criminals from the police? WTF is wrong with the world?
I mean, OK, I get it - the police have been under a microscope lately, but largely they do their jobs and protect citizens, and the ones that violate our rights need to be punished... but nothing in this article suggests that this technology is a violation of any rights at all.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
I know technical solutions to political problems but cheap and trivial availability of technology is what's directly fueling these shortcuts.
Running software on mobile handsets to detect and map the use of stingrays is hardly unreasonable or impractical. If enough people did it stingrays might become sufficiently risky and worthless such that police departments would find the time to ask a judge for warrant to get information from Telcos.
Perhaps misinformed, but also poorly educated. What I was taught in public school about my constitutional rights was really just about next to nothing. But it goes well beyond either misinformed or ignorant - like the people in this thread who are willfully and without thought thinking that this issue has anything to do at all with constitutional rights. And, as it normally happens, 99% of the people getting all up in arms abut this probably didn't even read the article to find out what the problem actually is... if there even is a problem.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
What I was taught in public school about my constitutional rights was really just about next to nothing.
Despite this you were able to draw conclusions on the constitutionality of warrantless stingray use. Care to share the basis for your conclusion?
Oh, I quite agree! That is why I am an advocate for repealing the 4th amendment! I mean, why would anyone want that? Don't they want the police to catch petty criminals?
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
The very old systems? They had a drop to older phone network standards and users would just see it as part of their local rust belt cell networks.
Such changes in networking conditions could be mapped.
Phone Firewall Identifies Rogue Cell Towers Trying To Intercept Your Calls (09.03.14)
http://www.wired.com/2014/09/c...
Upgrades and updates ensure all tracking is now more seamless in any area less of the drop down to another generation of network service. Voice, mapping, rewind packages work "as" any domestic cell infrastructure for a low cost per city, state.
The next gen is as sold as good as is used to track foreigners in their own nations and stay ahead of very low end diplomatic counter surveillance efforts.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
I don't really understand why this has been marked a flamebait. While I don't fully agree with the language, it's still a valid argument with an illustrative source (the fact that it really is 100% Democrat controlled). The one who holds the power should be the one to blame. Republicans may have started some surveillance trends, but the Democrats have done nothing to limit their use. In fact, they have expanded them like a wild fire.
Captcha: "abortive" (what the f...)
In Baltimore and Elsewhere, Police Use Stingrays For Petty Crimes
While it's nice to know they're equipped with the latest tech, they really shouldn't be committing petty crimes in the first place.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Gee, I dunno - learning after out of public school?
When someone asks you to explain the basis for your decision and you respond "learning!" it's clear that you needed to spend more time in school learning how to speak to people, because you're not communicating.
Let's hear the argument as to how this is not a violation of your right to be free from unwarranted searches.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
violating the Supreme Law of the Land
Well-settled con law: No expectation of privacy = no search = no Fourth Amendment rights implicated.
How does a cellphone thief have a right to right to privacy on a cellphone he just stole? That's ludicrous on its face.
Slashdot "libertarians": Small government for me, big government for those I disagree with. -1, I disagree with you
Slow your roll
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
So when the police lie about how they obtained evidence, allow an NDA with a corporation to be used to deny due process, and use this shit without a warrant ... this stuff should be a criminal act.
This should be the kind of thing which gets you stripped of your duties and thrown in prison with the rest of the crooks.
This is perjury, actively undermining the way the legal system works, and likely violates several Constitutionally protected rights and probably defies years of legal precedent which says they're not allowed to do shit like this.
This is why we can no longer trust the integrity of the police. Between the police who break the law during an arrest and lie about it until the video surfaces, and the high-level breaking of the law at the department and prosecutor level ... there's really no basis on which to trust them.
If they're not going to give a damn what the law says, take steps to evade it, and lie to us about it ... then they should be subject to the force of law.
This shit should be felony convictions. And the police who are bypassing the legal system should be left to rot in prison fending for themselves with all of the other criminals.
The police have reached the point where institutionalized perjury seems to be the norm. Which means we have to assume they're all lying bastards.
But letting them use secret stuff, lying about if they used it, and otherwise subverting the legal system? Sorry, that's pretty much criminal conspiracy, and they know damned well they'd get tossed out of court if they admitted it. But for some reason the police seem to think it's OK when they do it.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
In that case, I want ACLU to refund my donations. They aren't doing their job...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Who said anything about repealing the fourth amendment? What the hell is wrong with you? Not having your cellphone tracked is not a right, and if you don't like it then don't use a cellphone - the cellphone companies know where you are, it's just the nature of the beast.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
Nobody searched anybody in this situation - they tracked a cellphone; they didn't listen in on the calls (no calls even need to have been made). The cellphone companies always had a pretty good rough estimate where you are anyway - all the stingray does is narrow down the focus. People don't like the idea of being able to be tracked, they don't want cameras with facial recognition on every corner - I get it, but they don't violate any constitutional rights.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
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.
So the one example the give us is a murder. Maybe that is petty crime in Baltimore. These days that seems likely. In other parts of the country, murder is frowned upon. The annoying thing is that, by ignoring all the rules, this murderer is likely to be let off with a technicality and be back on the streets, murdering with impunity.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
There are no longer private persecutions at the federal level. State laws vary, but most are restrictive. As is often the case, Texas is a bit of an outlier in that a citizen can contact the grand jury directly and seek an indictment.
California, Louisiana, and Texas tend to have more differences in their laws than other states, with California always trying new things, Texas prioritizing individual rights vs less government, and Louisiana having French / Cajun traditions.
The "Stingray" mimics a cell tower, and operates at a frequency which the police are not legally entitled to broadcast. They force a disconnect from your legal cell tower and take all traffic, and can read and write data and metadata from/to the phone. They are fully capable of intercepting your content communications as well. this isn't exactly an envelope, this is setting up fake mailboxes and catching all mail that goes through and injecting data/metadata/intercepting content into the mail as well. There is nothing legal about this without a warrant, and even with a warrant the claims of legality are spurious at best.
but they don't violate any constitutional rights.
You keep saying that, but so far you've offered absolutely zero support for the idea that they don't violate any constitutional rights. If you want to be taken seriously, you're going to have to present an argument, not just keep repeating your unsupported assertion. That's how it works.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Many people feel that your location is private, as long as you're not in a public place.
Also, it's not just the "target" phone: as I understand it, a stingray appears as a cell tower to all the phones near it. So it's catching people who aren't even suspected of a crime, and may lead to dropped calls when the phones try to switch to a stronger signal from a "tower" that isn't actually part of the phone system.
What doesn't make sense here is that, if an item is stolen, tracking it shouldn't require permission of the person who stole it or a court order; the rightful owner should be able to authorize it. In fact with all of the "find my phone" features out there, I'm not even sure why the expensive devices are needed. If my phone was stolen and police wanted to use the "find my phone" feature to retrieve it, I would hate to hate to see that evidence thrown out. Of course, it also should be easy to get the warrant. There is something here more than meets the eye and the article isn't enlightening.
Since most people spend 95% of their time at either home, work, or some such place, you'd think there could be an app that lets you know you are connecting to a strange tower it doesn't know about. That app could even have a setting to disconnect if such an incident were to happen. Since these are so secretive, there is no way to know if nefarious types are using them for illegal purposes. This would seem to help keep phones secure from anyone legally or illegally using such a Stingray device.
Ninjas don't carry tic tacs
USA Today — the newspaper — are doing their job. The legal organizations — governmental and NGOs alike — do not.
Your daughter has the great advantage over a sad number of other Black kids — a father... But let's no descend any further off-topic.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Except YOUR device explicitly connects to their tower and tells them everything.
If I pick up a tapped or pen-registered landline phone and start dialing, my device is explicitly sending a series of tones that tells them everything, but they need a warrant to use that equipment. Why should it be any different just because we're discussing cellphones instead of landlines? "But, it's [new technology]!" does not obviate the need for a warrant.
Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
> Your daughter has the great advantage over a sad number of other Black kids â" a father
True. A damn good one, at that. Of course, if having a father is the criterion, _I_ am the disadvantaged one. Yet I had to work two jobs to pay cash for a third-rate college after aceing most everything in high school. Hmm.
North Carolina bill S634 goes into effect on December 1 of this year making it illegal to drive in the left lane at any speed under the speed limit unless passing another vehicle or making a left turn. If you're in the left lane and slow down to just below the speed limit that will be all the cause they need to pull you over.
The intent is to get passive-aggressive drivers out of the left lane. In practice this is just going to give one more reason for cops to pull over anyone, any time, for any reason.
I do not block ads. I do block third party scripts.
... 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.
Those attitudes came down from the southern slave owners, who were also democrats. It is the same attitude that horse owners have to the horses, and maybe it is appropriate for horses. But not for people!