SurveillanceGrowing scrutiny of police use of Stingray surveillance technology
IMSI-catcher (International Mobile Subscriber Identity), aka Stingray, is a surveillance technology which simulates cell phone towers in order to intercept mobile phone calls and text messages. Privacy advocates have scrutinized the use of Stingrays in U.S. cities because, when the device tracks a suspect’s cell phone, it also gathers information about the phones of bystanders within the target range. Additionally, police use Stingrays without properly identifying the technology when requesting search warrants has raised concerns.
The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) in Washington, D.C. was awarded a $260,000 grant from DHS in 2003 to purchase an IMSI-catcher (International Mobile Subscriber Identity), a surveillance technology manufactured by the Harris Corporation to simulate cell phone towers in order to intercept mobile phone calls and text messages. DHS awarded the grant to MPD, and similar grants to other law enforcement agencies, to help them acquire new anti-terrorism technology from the private sector. The grant fell short of what was needed to train officers to use the technology, so MPD officials stored the device, known by its generic name, Stingray, in the department’s “Electronic Surveillance Unit equipment vault” for five years.
In 2008, MPD received another federal grant to revive its Stingray initiative, but concerns of a terrorist attack had decreased significantly, so department officials sought to use the Stingray device for routine criminal investigations.
Through an open records request, Vice News has acquired dozens of pages (with redactions) of purchase orders, invoices, and memos between MPD and Harris Corporation detailing the transactions relating to MPD’s Stingray initiative. “The [redacted] will be used by MPD to track cellular phones possessed by criminal offenders and/or suspected terrorists by using wireless technology to triangulate the location of the phone,” states a memo, whose subject line is, “Outside Training Request for Members of the Electronic Surveillance Unit and Members of the Homicide Branch to Attend [redacted].”
“The ability to [redacted] in the possession of criminals will allow MPD to track their exact movements, as well as pinpoint their current locations for rapid apprehension,” the memo continues. “The procurement of this equipment will increase the number of MPD arrests for fugitives, drug traffickers, and violent offenders (robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, Homicide), while reducing the time it takes to locate dangerous offenders that need to be removed from the streets of D.C.”
Privacy advocates have scrutinized the use of Stingrays in U.S. cities because, when the device tracks a suspect’s cell phone, it also gathers information about the phones of bystanders within the target range. Additionally, police use of Stingrays without properly identifying the technology when requesting search warrants has raised concerns. Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Maryland, Virginia, Illinois, Utah, Colorado, and Tennessee passed laws this year requiring warrants before police could harvest data from cell phones, but the laws governing the use of Stingrays vary by state.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has identified forty-four law enforcement agencies in eighteen states which use Stingrays, but according to Nathan Wessler, an attorney with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy & Technology Project, the difference between using Stingrays in Washington, D.C. compared to their use in Sacramento, Tallahassee, or other cities, is that the intelligence being gathered in the nation’s capital could be sensitive and compromise national security. “If the MPD is driving around D.C. with Stingray devices, it is likely capturing information about the locations and movements of members of Congress, cabinet members, federal law enforcement agents, and Homeland Security personnel, consular staff, and foreign dignitaries, and all of the other people who congregate in the District,” Wessler told Vice News.
Additionally, information gathered via Stingrays can be shared between MPD and its federal partners including the FBI, Drug Enforcement Agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Marshals Service, the United States Attorneys’ Office, as well as neighboring state and local law enforcement agencies. “Upon request, this equipment can also be used to assist these agencies with the location and apprehension of any of their targeted offenders,” read a December 2008 memo from the MPD commander of the Narcotics and Special Investigations Division to the chief of police and other top department officials.
