Actually, with a String-Ray ‘box’, I’d keep the cell towers up and track every single social media ‘item’ and all phone calls. You go and pull five guys off the protest, check their phones for social media....hit the right sites, and let them lead you to the ‘bosses’.
I think the Army intel folks who did time in Iraq could prescribe the various ways to track down the bad guys.
But What do you do when you trace them down and find they work for government funded NGO's created by Obama and congress?
The daily paradox we face here as a republic.