Landmark Surveillance Decision Handed Down

[+OverSword]

In what civil liberties and privacy advocates are calling a landmark decision, Maryland’s second-highest court has handed down the first appellate opinion in the country affirming that police must obtain a probable cause warrant to track cell phones.

The Maryland Court of Special Appeals issued the opinion in a ruling that rebuked Baltimore Police for failing to disclose that they had used a device called a cell site simulator, often referred to as a “stingray,” to locate an attempted murder suspect,

The Baltimore Sun reports.

In court testimony last April, a Baltimore detective

revealed that the Baltimore Police Department had used Stingrays more than 4,300 times since 2007, repeatedly failing to notify courts of their use in criminal cases.

The court rejected the state of Maryland’s argument that anyone turning on a phone was “voluntarily” sharing their whereabouts with the police. And the 73-page

opinion also harshly scolded Baltimore police for trying to conceal their use of Stingrays from the court.

The panel of judges

wrote:

We conclude that people have a reasonable expectation that their cell phones will not be used as real-time tracking devices by law enforcement, and — recognizing that the Fourth Amendment protects people and not simply areas — that people have an objectively reasonable expectation of privacy in real-time cell phone location information.

Source

There is some other very interesting details concerning non-disclosure agreements between the manufacturer of the stingray device, the FBI and local law enforcement agencies that fly in the face of an open and free society.

[aztek]

they are ahead of the game, they use your ezpass to rack your movements if you drive, every other intersection in nyc is equipped with ezpass reader, and camera, not red light or speed camera, i can imagine the cost of that system, that we paid for, i'm sure it is in billions.

[bubblykiss]

they are ahead of the game, they use your ezpass to rack your movements if you drive, every other intersection in nyc is equipped with ezpass reader, and camera, not red light or speed camera, i can imagine the cost of that system, that we paid for, i'm sure it is in billions.

Oh, you are referring to the Santa System. Listen, the gov't is not tracking your every movement out of malice or simple abuse of overreaching power structures that should never have been constructed as they are directly opposed to the innate freedoms that are the foundation of a modern Liberal Western Democracy.

No, they are just like Santa and want to see who has been Naughty and who has been Nice.