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Without it, then-chief justice Earl Warren wrote, “the constitutional guarantee against unreasonable searches and seizures would be a mere ‘form of words.’”
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The power of judges to toss evidence seized in contravention of a defendant’s rights is, the Supreme Court wrote in 1968, the only true defense Americans have against police misconduct. The practice is legally controversial, particularly when undisclosed in court, as it prevents evidentiary hearings from weighing the legality of actual police conduct.ĭocuments show police are advised to pursue “additional and independent investigative means and methods” to obtain evidence collected through use of a cell-site simulator, though suggestions provided by the FBI on how this could be accomplished were redacted by the bureau. In some cases, this leads police to launder evidence using a technique known as parallel construction, whereby the method used to collect evidence is concealed by using a different method to collect the same information again after the fact. When police use the devices to locate a suspect on the loose or gather evidence of a crime, they are generally required by the FBI not to disclose it in court. It does this by conflating cell-site simulators with decades-old police technologies like the “trap and trace” and “pen registers,” names for devices and programs capable of identifying incoming and outgoing calls, respectively, but which do not gather location data. The DOJ crafts the language used by police in these interactions with courts to control the amount of legal scrutiny that falls on the device. This extends to police departments borrowing the technology from the FBI. Carpenter decision, in which the Supreme Court held that cellular data containing location data is shielded by the Fourth Amendment, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has required federal agencies to obtain warrants before activating cell-site simulators. This designation is used by the FBI, however, in order to compel secrecy from state and local agencies requesting its aid, as unauthorized disclosures about defense technology is considered an arms control violation punishable by up to 20 years in prison and $1 million in fines.ĭue to their interference with domestic cellular networks, the use of the device for law enforcement purposes is authorized by the Federal Communications Commission. Other records show cell-site simulators are listed as defense articles on the United States Munitions List, meaning trade in the technology is ultimately regulated by the State Department. Stipulations in the contracts include withholding information about the devices, they're functionality, and deployment from defendants and their lawyers in the event the cases prove justiciable.Ĭontract language obtained by the ACLU shows police are required to use any “reasonably available” means to restrict the device from doing anything more than “recording or decoding electronic or other impulse to the dialing, routing, addressing and signaling information utilized in the processing and transmitting of wire or electronic communications.” The FBI requires the NDAs to be signed before agreeing to aid police in tracking suspects using the devices.
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The documents, handed over by the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act, include copies of nondisclosure agreements signed by police departments requesting access to portable devices known as cell-site simulators, otherwise known by the generic trademark “Stingray” after an early model developed by 元Harris Technologies.
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To protect the secrets of the technology, documents show, police departments will routinely agree, if necessary, to drop charges against suspects who've been accused of violent crimes. United States government records recently obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union show that state and local police authorities are continuing to trade silence for access to sophisticated phone-tracking technologies loaned out by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
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