By Rebecca K. Smith, CLDC Board President & Cooperating Attorney
Last week the U.S. Department of Justice announced a new policy that all federal law enforcement agents must obtain a search warrant prior to using a “stingray” for cell phone surveillance. “Stingrays,” which are also known as cell-site simulators, are machines that pretend to be cellphone towers, thereby intercepting information from the cellphones of unsuspecting citizens in public or private places. Until last week, there was no policy in place requiring federal law enforcement officials to obtain a search warrant prior to conducting this type of surveillance. In other words, there was no requirement that law enforcement agents demonstrate likely criminal activity prior to this surveillance.
Stingrays provide law enforcement agents with unique identifying numbers for each phone as well as the location of the phone. Stingrays also have the potential to provide law enforcement with all mobile traffic that is routed through the cell-site simulator, including voice, data, and texts. This creates the potential for simulator operators to record this type of information or even deny service to individual phones.
As a result of last week’s new policy, federal agents must obtain a warrant supported by probable cause prior to using stingrays for cellphone surveillance. Additionally, agents may only use stingrays to collect the location of the phone and its identifying number. They may not collect the content of the phone, such as voice, data, or texts.