Secrecy around police surveillance equipment proves a case’s undoing

Washington Post ^ | February 22, 2015 | Ellen Nakashima

[Second Amendment First]

TALLAHASSEE — The case against Tadrae McKenzie looked like an easy win for prosecutors. He and two buddies robbed a small-time pot dealer of $130 worth of weed using BB guns. Under Florida law, that was robbery with a deadly weapon, with a sentence of at least four years in prison.

But before trial, his defense team detected investigators’ use of a secret surveillance tool, one that raises significant privacy concerns. In an unprecedented move, a state judge ordered the police to show the device — a cell-tower simulator sometimes called a StingRay — to the attorneys.

Rather than show the equipment, the state offered McKenzie a plea bargain.

Today, 20-year-old McKenzie is serving six months’ probation ­after pleading guilty to a second-degree misdemeanor. He got, as one civil liberties advocate said, the deal of the century. (The other two defendants also pleaded guilty and were sentenced to two years’ probation.)

McKenzie’s case is emblematic of the growing, but hidden, use by local law enforcement of a sophisticated surveillance technology borrowed from the national security world. It shows how a gag order imposed by the FBI — on grounds that discussing the device’s operation would compromise its effectiveness — has left judges, the public and criminal defendants in the dark on how the tool works.

[Second Amendment First]

McKenzie’s case is emblematic of the growing, but hidden, use by local law enforcement of a sophisticated surveillance technology borrowed from the national security world. It shows how a gag order imposed by the FBI — on grounds that discussing the device’s operation would compromise its effectiveness — has left judges, the public and criminal defendants in the dark on how the tool works.

I feel so much safer knowing they are watching we the people rather than the real threats to our nation.

[gaijin]

Cut him a deal cuz they didn’t want to divulge SOURCES & METHODS:

Know where THAT lingo comes from?

The freakin SPY WORLD...!

It has come home to roost on Main Street, America, and this is JUST THE BEGINNING.

They don’t want us to know about how Big Brother’s toys work.

I heard the long-term goal is to get Sting-Ray so small that it’s the same size as MOBILE PHONES..!

[sport]

They[the police] are watching their enemy. At some point in time somewhere back, we, the ordinary law abiding Citizen became public enemy number one to them.

[kiryandil]

OK, this is a JWTF!!!

[jospehm20]

Good. That should make it easy to get a hold of one. When they get them small enough, you can count on a cop leaving one laying around at a Dunkin Donuts.

[Slings and Arrows]

I see no possible way that this technology could be abused.

[babygene]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stingray_phone_tracker

[MaxMax]

Ohhh, such a big secret.

I plan to build one and track Obama's blackberry data without a warrant.
Who needs a stinking warrant anymore.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

There is really nothing that high tech about it. It is a standard man in the middle attack. You set up a fake cell phone relay and send intercepted packets to the real tower.

[vbmoneyspender]

They reason they don’t want to discuss the device’s operation isn’t because that “would compromise its effectiveness.” The reason they don’t want to discuss it is because they are using the device to listen to everyone’s cell phone conversations without a warrant.

[ifinnegan]

“feel so much safer knowing they are watching we the people rather than the real threats to our nation.”

You identify with armed robber dope head thugs and consider them “We the People?”

[upchuck]

Another reason I'm glad I don't own a cell phone.

And if I did, it would spend it's life inside a Faraday cage bag unless I wanted to make a call. Like this.

[Jumper]

Should have been turned over to a court to be tried behind FBI/NSA firewalls. The fact that a judge compelled law enforcement to possibly turn over technology not belonging to them, seems to be worthy of the judge being disbarred and hauled into jail for trying to undermine national security.

[atomic_dog]

The reason they keep it so secret is that when a IMSI-catcher is operated in active mode, the person operating it is breaking two Federal laws, neither of which which have a law enforcement exception.

[RFEngineer]

I believe that these days cell phone tracking is the first tool used to solve a crime. ID every cell phone in the vicinity of a crime and eliminate from there.

claim you had other evidence (or use it to find surveillance cameras...but never admit you can ID criminals this way.

[freepersup]

Thanks- bookmarked.

[Smokin' Joe]

By the time they build a border fence it will be to keep us in.

[Smokin' Joe]

There is really nothing that high tech about it. It is a standard man in the middle attack. You set up a fake cell phone relay and send intercepted packets to the real tower.

I wonder if that would account for serious delays in text messages getting through (hours to two weeks).

[Smokin' Joe]

Should have been turned over to a court to be tried behind FBI/NSA firewalls.

Only if conducted with a warrant, only if national security is involved.

Otherwise, we'll get to the point where everyone gets to go to secret court before being sent to the camps...

The fact that a judge compelled law enforcement to possibly turn over technology not belonging to them, seems to be worthy of the judge being disbarred and hauled into jail for trying to undermine national security.

I don't think a couple of no-goods holding up a dope dealer is a national security issue. So let the police get a warrant and then show their information source.

[Faith65]

BKMK