Groups Ask FCC and DOJ to Investigate Law Enforcement’s Warrantless Use of Cellular Surveillance Devices

On March 16, 45 civil rights, public policy and public interest organizations, including ColorOfChange, Open Technology Institute, the Center for Media Justice and Public Knowledge, will deliver a letter and more than 34,500 petition signatures to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Department of Justice (DOJ). The letter and petition demands that the FCC and DOJ investigate law enforcement’s largely unregulated use of military-grade cellular surveillance devices, called Stingrays.

Stingrays mimic cell towers in order to indiscriminately intercept all cellular signals in an area, and enables law enforcement to gather serial numbers and location information, as well as to identify individual phones.

The groups are also asking the FCC and DOJ to remedy data collection loopholes that allow state and local law enforcement agencies to use the device with little to no transparency. Additionally, ColorOfChange’s petition is asking the FCC to create a public registry of Stingray devices and to require all law enforcement agencies applying for device certification to provide detailed and public policies outlining their use. ColorOfChange is also asking the FCC to suspend the certification of any Stingray device being used without a warrant.

Last month, reports surfaced that the New York Police Department used Stingrays without a warrant in at least 1,000 instances. Freedom of Information Act requests have revealed that the FBI and other law enforcement agencies had been using similar surveillance devices to monitor protests and activists with the movement for Black lives in Baltimore and Ferguson.

Groups that signed the letter and delivered the petition believe the current lack of transparency and oversight will have a disparate impact on communities of color and, therefore, urge the FCC and DOJ to denounce racial profiling in police technology.

The following quote can be attributed to Emily Hong, Policy Program Associate at New America’s Open Technology Institute:

"News story after story has broken regarding the use of stingray devices and other cell-site simulators for domestic surveillance by law enforcement agencies. But the technology’s widespread adoption has unfortunately not brought any more transparency or accountability to the devices’ use. Law enforcement agencies and vendors have endeavored to keep them in secret and out of the public eye, and the devices have been systematically deployed without adequate policies in place to prevent abuse and protect privacy and civil liberties. Such an invasive and powerful technology exacerbates the disparate harms of policing to the most vulnerable communities in our society—the warrantless and surreptitious uses of these devices cannot be allowed to continue."  

The following quote can be attributed to Rashad Robinson, Executive Director of ColorOfChange:

“Law enforcement’s warrantless and reckless use of this invasive surveillance technology is completely unacceptable. We know all too well that unrestricted surveillance power gets disproportionately used against Black communities. In light of the widespread and illegal use of this surveillance technology and law enforcement’s long history of surveilling Black communities, we are calling on Chairman Tom Wheeler and the FCC to use their authority over Stingray devices to suspend the warrantless use of these devices and require all law enforcement agencies to publicly register their devices and publicly share their policies governing the use of this device.”  

The following quote can be attributed to Malkia Cyril, Executive Director of Center for Media Justice:

“From New York to Baltimore, and at sites of protest across this nation, documents reveal the repeated use of Stingray devices by law enforcement agencies, without a warrant. The FBI and local police departments have proven time and again that without oversight, these surveillance technologies will be used illegally - with great harm to Black communities and other communities of color. The time for the FCC to take action to protect vulnerable communities by prohibiting the warrantless use of these devices is now.”

You can read the submitted letter here. You can read the submitted petition here.