Boston Police use of cell phone trackers kept private

[friendly_iconoclast]

Source: Boston Globe


By Eric Levenson @ejleven
Boston.com Staff | 02.24.16 | 1:59 PM

The Boston Police Department is staying quiet on how it uses cellphone tracker technology, causing concerns among civil liberties advocates, according to a report from the New England Center for Investigative Reporting.

Boston Police and the Suffolk County district attorney’s office have agreements with the Federal Bureau of Investigation not to release information about the trackers, according to documents obtained by NECIR through a public records request.

The devices, known as “StingRays,” are capable of identifying all phones in a given area and logging their movements over time, NECIR reports. In New York, the technology has been used in more than 1,000 cases to investigate rapes, murders, and missing people, as well as lower-priority crimes like identity theft and money laundering, The New York Times reports.

But in Boston, police spokesman Lt. Michael McCarthy told NECIR it has no list of cases that used trackers and declined to provide examples of their use.

Read more: https://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2016/02/24/boston-police-use-cell-phone-trackers-kept-private/mhICsYrsOpj4wEHBUbKxcN/story.html

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From a prior article:

Under the pacts, police and prosecutors agreed not to provide information about the devices, even in court proceedings, without prior approval of the FBI. They also agreed to seek dismissal of a case, at the FBI’s request, rather than disclose sensitive information about them in court.

The US public defender’s office in Boston, which represents indigent defendants in federal prosecutions, says that prior to a New England Center for Investigative Reporting story in November, it was unaware that any such agreement existed. The center revealed the Boston Police Department’s use of the devices.

“The danger is that nondisclosure agreements foster mischief,” said William Fick, an assistant US public defender. He said such agreements “create perverse incentives” for law enforcement and prosecutors to omit or misrepresent how they obtained information.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/02/24/boston-police-cast-veil-warrants-uses-for-cellphone-trackers/fENx8a6nZd33UxttCHKlFJ/story.html

How many defense attorneys are going to start researching old court records to see
if someone was convicted with fudged or perjured court representations?

It's happened elsewhere:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141199194

"2,000 cases may be overturned because police used secret Stingray surveillance"

[noretreatnosurrender]

1. Through the Looking Glass Again

Privacy for them - lack of privacy for us. I thought government was supposed to be transparent and Americans were supposed to have a right to privacy. Not anymore. Now government thinks it should know everything about us and we should know only what they want us to know about them. We are on the wrong track and more and more people are noticing.

[Feeling the Bern]

2. But they're not all bad. It's a tough job. They need tools to do it right.

Cops are necessary. If you're a victim of crime, don't call a cop if you criticize them.

Cue the apologists in 5,4,3,2,1...

[BadgerKid]

3. It's already known

that service providers triangulate your phone and keep a running list of cells the phone has been in, well, the towers to which the phone has been in contact with. This is how the towers can "switch" you as your phone traverses larger distances. It would be surprising if cops had not already had access to this information.

[greymouse]

4. does this work if your phone is turned off?

If not, I imagine they will close that loophole soon anyway.

[KG]

5. of course, the gov't would NEVER mis-use a backdoor into your privacy....