Federal Judge Rejects Evidence Gathered With “Stingray” Warrantless Surveillance Tool

Saturday, July 16, 2016
By Paul Martin

By Derrick Broze
ActivistPost.com
JULY 16, 2016

A federal judge has set a precedent by suppressing evidence obtained without a warrant using a surveillance device sometimes known as a Stingray.

After several years of law enforcement agencies across the United States gathering evidence using a secret surveillance tool – and doing so without a warrant – a federal judge has struck down evidence collected by the U.S Drug Enforcement Administration. U.S. District Judge William Pauley in Manhattan ruled that the defendant’s rights were violated when the DEA used a cell site simulator, also known as a Stingray, without a warrant in order to find the suspects home.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation describes Stingrays as “a brand name of an IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identity) Catcher targeted and sold to law enforcement. A Stingray works by masquerading as a cell phone tower – to which your mobile phone sends signals to every 7 to 15 seconds whether you are on a call or not – and tricks your phone into connecting to it.” As a result, whoever is in possession of the Stingray can figure out who, when, and to where you are calling, the precise location of every device within the range, and with some devices, even capture the content of your conversations.

Raymond Lambis was located in his Washington Heights apartment after authorities used the device to locate a cell phone used for drug trafficking. Judge Pauley said the use of the Stingray was an unreasonable search and violated the defendants Fourth Amendment rights. “Absent a search warrant, the government may not turn a citizen’s cell phone into a tracking device,” Pauley wrote. Judge Pauley becomes the first federal judge to suppress evidence based on the use of a cell site simulator.

“This opinion strongly reinforces the strength of our constitutional privacy rights in the digital age,” ACLU attorney Nathan Freed Wessler said in a statement to Reuters.

The Rest…HERE

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