What You Should Know about StingRay Cell Phone Surveillance

What Is the StingRay Tapping Device?

A new device called StingRay Tapping Device enables the police and the government to track cell phone communications. The StringRay is a box that electronically connects to local cell phone towers. It then simulates the cell phone tower, and in turn prompts signals from cell phones attached to the tower.

If the police can connect to hundreds of citizen’s phones, what stops them from tapping into the general population’s phones?

StingRay’s Use by Police

From 2007-2014 in Tallahassee, FL, the city police used the StingRay in more than 250 investigations. This means they used it in about 40 investigations per year, in a city where the population is only 186,000. Even if the police are using the StingRay just to find criminals, are they taking advantage of this power and relying on it too much?

In one of these cases, a drug deal gone wrong lead the police to use the StingRay to track down the location of the suspect. Tadrae McKenzie and a couple of friends robbed a dealer of weed and money in a parking lot and fled the scene. Police found his whereabouts about a week later and he was arrested.

During the trial, McKenzie’s defense team became suspicious that a secret surveillance tool was used because there was no evidence that would lead the police straight to McKenzie’s home. The judge then ordered the police to show the device. They did in fact use a StingRay.

The FBI has declared there is no mandate for court warrants to be used when connecting a StingRay to a cell phone tower. They decided the device does not violate our Fourth Amendment and it is lawful for the police to track communications of suspects. The Obama Administration stands by this. The administration has declared that citizens have no privacy in public areas.

Senator Questions the Use of StringRay

Recently, Florida Senator Bill Nelson gave a speech to the Senate about the threat that StingRay poses to consumers’ privacy. “It’s time for us to stand up for the individual citizen of this country and their right to privacy,” said Nelson. The Senator also send a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, requesting certain explanations regarding the nature of the company behind StringRay.