Pubdate: Thu, 04 Feb 2016
Source: Orange County Register, The (CA)
Copyright: 2016 The Orange County Register
Contact:  http://www.ocregister.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/321

CELLPHONE SEARCH SECRECY

While the Anaheim Police Department never denied having the device 
widely known as a Stingray, which mimics cellphone towers and can 
potentially interact with a bystander's cellphone as far as a mile 
away from the subject of police surveillance, documents released to 
the American Civil Liberties Union reveal that the department has had 
"at least three different forms of cellphone surveillance technology 
since at least 2009."

The devices, all with equally colorful names, include a 
military-grade device known as a "dirtbox." The dirtbox is "capable 
of breaking the encryption of cellphone communications," and previous 
models could intercept and record digital voice data. The civil 
liberties group also notes that the dirtbox is capable of being used 
from aircraft, allowing it to snatch up signals from thousands of phones.

On the other end of the spectrum is the "Jugular," which the ACLU 
strongly suspects Anaheim purchased in late 2013, based on price 
comparisons for similar devices. It is a handheld device that allows 
individual officers to "easily conduct cellphone surveillance around 
and inside of buildings, including private homes, without alerting bystanders."

Anaheim has previously said that "a court order signed by a judge is 
required before this equipment can be operated." But a court order is 
not necessarily a warrant, and while these documents predate the 
landmark California Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which now 
requires a warrant for the devices, the News Tribune in Tacoma, 
Wash., found that, in almost 200 cases there in 2014, judges were not 
even aware they were issuing orders that involved Stingrays.

But what is perhaps more alarming than Anaheim's use of these devices 
with limited public knowledge and questionable oversight is that they 
apparently have also loaned them out to other cities in the county. 
In a funding request, the department noted that "every city in Orange 
County has benefited" and had written procedures on how to loan out 
the dirtbox.

These devices have become widespread among law enforcement agencies 
across the country, and the secrecy over how they are used remains a 
cause for concern. Allowing other law enforcement agencies to 
credibly deny possessing the devices while still collecting cellular 
activity only confounds this. The public has a right to know.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom