Warrantless Stingray Surveillance Deemed Unconstitutional, Proving Cops Are Breaking The Law

Monday, March 7, 2016
By Paul Martin

By Claire Bernish
ActivistPost.com
MARCH 6, 2016

Thanks to the Maryland Court of Special Appeals, the warrantless use of cell-site simulators, known as Stingrays, is now considered a violation of the Fourth Amendment.

“Police should now be on notice,” said staff attorney Nate Wessler of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, as The Intercept reported. “Accurately explain your surveillance activities to a judge and get a warrant, or risk your evidence being thrown out.”

This potentially precedent-setting decision upheld an earlier ruling by Baltimore Circuit Judge Kendra Ausby. According to The Intercept, “the trial court had suppressed evidence obtained by the warrantless use of a Stingray — the first time any court in the nation had done so.”

In a separate case before the courts in April last year, the revelation by a Baltimore police detective that the department had used Stingrays 4,300 times in eight years alarmed privacy-rights advocates around the country.

Wednesday’s ruling concerns a suspect in a 2014 shooting, Kerron Andrews, whom police needed to locate in order to effect an arrest. A judge granted police a “pen register” application — which isn’t a warrant, and doesn’t require probable cause — to gather information from Andrews’ wireless provider.

Instead of following through with the wireless service provider, police used “Hailstorm” — a high-tech version of Stingray. “This is a very expensive and very invasive technology developed for military use, now on the streets of America,” Wessler stated in April 2015.

The Rest…HERE

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