What Are “Stingrays” and Why You Should Care
Did you know right now, without a warrant, your local police force may be searching and tracking you through your cellphone? This can and is being done through the use of devices called cell-site simulators, commonly referred to by its brand name Stingray.[1] These devices mimic cellphone towers and trick cellphones in the area into transmitting their locations and identifying information to it instead of a tower, all while not alerting the user of the phone.[2] As a result, the user of the device can figure out who, when, and to where you are calling, and the precise location of every device within the range.[3]
The DOJ and DHS recently came out with new policies (which have problems of their own but that’s a discussion for another day) requiring the use of warrants but many state and local agencies still have no such guidelines.[4] Challenges have been made in court demanding information on how they are used but rather than turn that over, prosecutors are instructed to drop the case because of nondisclosure agreements required by the FBI in order to receive a Stingray in the first place.[5]
This simply cannot continue and is a perfect situation to apply the rule of lenity. This states the government should be required to provide notice to defendants in close or novel cases because in those circumstances it is the court’s role, not the government’s behind closed doors, to decide whether suppression is ultimately warranted.[6] If state and local agencies aren’t going to come up with their own policies and guidelines on the use of Stingrays, the courts should be able to step in and make their own.
Image: “How Stingray Works” by USA Today (H/T Chicago Times)
Footnotes
