Pubdate: Sun, 01 Mar 2015
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2015 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact: http://services.bostonglobe.com/news/opeds/letter.aspx?id=6340
Website: http://bostonglobe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author: Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post

CELLULAR TRACKING DEVICE SPARKS PRIVACY CONCERNS

TALLAHASSEE - The case against Tadrae McKenzie looked like an easy 
win for prosecutors. He and two buddies robbed a small-time marijuana 
dealer of $130 worth of pot using a BB gun. Under Florida law, that 
was robbery with a deadly weapon, with a sentence of at least four 
years in prison.

But before trial, his defense team found investigators had used a 
secret surveillance tool, one that raises significant privacy 
concerns. In an unprecedented move, a state judge ordered the police 
to show the device - a cell-tower simulator sometimes called a 
StingRay - to McKenzie's attorneys.

Rather than show the equipment, the state offered the defendant a plea bargain.

McKenzie, 20, is now serving six months' probation after pleading 
guilty to a second-degree misdemeanor. He got, as one civil liberties 
advocate said, the deal of the century.

His case is emblematic of the growing, but hidden, use of a 
sophisticated surveillance technology borrowed from the national 
security world for use by local law enforcement. It shows how a gag 
order imposed by the FBI - on the grounds that discussing the 
device's operation would compromise its effectiveness - has left 
judges, the public, and criminal defendants in the dark on how the tool works.

That secrecy in turn has hindered debate over whether the StingRay's 
use respects Americans' civil liberties.

The StingRay is a box about the size of a small suitcase - there's 
also a hand-held version - that simulates a cellphone tower. It 
elicits signals from all mobile phones in its vicinity. That means it 
collects information about the communications of potentially hundreds 
of law-abiding citizens as well as of any suspected criminals.

The Tallahassee Police Department used the StingRay or a similar 
device in 250 investigations from mid-2007 through early last year, 
according to records provided to the American Civil Liberties Union.

That's 40 or so instances a year in a city of 290,000, a surprisingly 
high rate given that the StingRay's manufacturer, Harris Corp., has 
told the Federal Communications Commission that the device is used 
only in emergencies. At least 48 state and local law enforcement 
agencies in 20 states and the District of Columbia have the devices, 
the ACLU says.

The secrecy surrounding the device's use has begun to prompt a 
backlash in cities across the country, including Charlotte, N.C, and Baltimore.

In Tacoma, after a local newspaper investigation found judges in 
almost 200 cases had no idea they were issuing orders for the 
StingRay's use, the court set new disclosure rules for law 
enforcement officials.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom