A recently
disclosed document shows the FBI telling a local police department
that the bureau’s covert cell-phone tracking equipment is so secret
that any evidence acquired through its use needs to be recreated in
some other way before being introduced at trial.
“Information
obtained through the use of the equipment is FOR LEAD PURPOSES ONLY,”
FBI special agent James E. Finch wrote to Chief Bill Citty of the
Oklahoma City Police Department.
The official
notice, dated September 2014, said such information “may not be
used as primary evidence in any affidavits, hearings or trials. This
equipment provides general location information about a cellular
device, and your agency understands it is required to use additional
and independent investigative means and methods, such as historical
cellular analysis, that would be admissible at trial to corroborate
information concerning the location of the target obtained through
the use of this equipment.”
The
document, obtained by nonprofit investigative journalism outlet
Oklahoma Watch, pertains to the use of cell site simulators, or
Stingrays — surveillance technology that mimics a cellphone tower
to trick cellphones into transmitting location data and other
information, sometimes even the contents of calls.
Journalists
and activists have uncovered at least 20 similar nondisclosure
agreements between FBI and local police about Stingrays in the past
few years — but the FBI’s advice about retroactively recreating
evidence appears to be new.
Full
report:
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