Victory! DOJ Forces Feds to Obtain Warrants to Spy on Cellphones with Stingray SurveillanceBy Jay Syrompoulos The new guidelines, implemented September 3, require all federal law enforcement agencies, as well as all state and local agencies working in concert with a federal investigation, to obtain a search warrant from a judge before being allowed to deploy the device. These much-needed policy changes came after journalists and activists worked tirelessly to investigate and expose the use of these devices, often without a warrant, by federal and state law enforcement agencies. The Stingray device works by mimicking a legitimate cell phone tower, thus fooling cell phones in the area into connecting to the police controlled device. This enables law enforcement to access the unique identifying number for every phone in the proximity of the instrument, and then track a phones location in real-time. Additionally, the devices have the capability to route the traffic of all phones in the vicinity through the Stingray. This allows agents the option of recording entire calls, intercepting texts, or even selectively denying service to particular phones. Investigations across the nation have revealed the extensive use of the technology by federal, state and local law enforcement. It was subsequently revealed that state and local law enforcement agencies were allowed to procure this technology from the FBI and Harris Corporation, makers of the Stingray and related devices. However, they were bound by strict non-disclosure agreements, which prevented any modicum of transparency or accountability. Think about that for a second. The FBI and Harris Corporation gave the police a device that can intercept and record peoples phone calls, text messages and data, but only allowed them the technology if they signed an agreement that didnt allow them to tell anyone that they were using the device, including judges. Does this sound like a justice system?? In holding to their agreements, law enforcement went so far to protect the secret use of the device that there were numerous cases in which charges were dropped rather than answer a judges questions that would potentially reveal the use of the device. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation: What todays changes do: What todays changes dont do: While this is a good first step towards providing transparency and accountability in the use of this technology, the fact that this directive covers only federal agencies remains problematic. Many state and local law enforcement agencies continue to attempt to conceal their use of the devices in criminal investigations. There is still virtually nothing, aside from vigilant judges, keeping the warrantless evidence gathered using the Stingray from being presented as evidence in state courts. Without there being any established law regulating the devices use, compliance with the Fourth Amendments warrant requirement seems like an extremely arbitrary choice, without any real enforcement mechanism to hold violators accountable. The only way to control the rampant and unconstitutional use of this, and similar technologies, is to make an example out of police agencies that choose to flout the Fourth Amendment. They need to be held criminally liable under the law when using the device illicitly or attempting to conceal its use from trial court judges. The warrant requirement should include all state and local law enforcement agencies around the country, similar to that of Washington, which already has laws in place requiring a warrant. The idea that we need a state law to tell the cops to follow the U.S. Constitutions Fourth Amendments warrant requirement seems patently absurd. Perhaps we need to ask ourselves a larger question; why does law enforcement feel as though they have a right violate innocent Americas constitutional right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure? The time has come for law enforcement nationwide to get the message: if you want to use a Stingray, you need to get a warrant! Jay Syrmopoulos is an investigative journalist, free thinker, researcher, and ardent opponent of authoritarianism. He is currently a graduate student at University of Denver pursuing a masters in Global Affairs. Jays work has been published on BenSwanns Truth in Media, Truth-Out, AlterNet, InfoWars, MintPressNews and many other sites. You can follow him on Twitter @sirmetropolis, on Facebook at Sir Metropolis and now on tsu. 