Florida Police Spying NSA Style?

By: Zach McCormick
4/8/14


Florida police departments appear to be following the example set by the NSA recently, as evidenced by recent reports by Florida ACLU attorney Nathan Freed Wessler, that the Tallahassee Police Department (TPD) has used technology that is capable of intercepting cell phone communications of innocent Floridians without warrants. These devices are commonly referred to as "Stingrays" and are designed to intercept cellular data by acting as middle men between peoples' cell phones and cell phone towers.

As justification for its actions, TPD cited a non-disclosure clause in its contract with the device manufacturer. The apparent implication being that civil contracts trump the US and Florida Constitutions.

As it happened, the Tallahassee Police Department intentionally chose not to disclose the fact that this type of technology was being used during their investigations. However, according the Mr. Wessler's piece, TPD is committed to rectifying any wrongdoing on its part associated with misuse of the technology. 

That might otherwise be the end of the story, but it appears as if this was simply the tip of the iceberg as evidenced by an even more unsettling stance that the City of Sunrise has taken.
In contrast with the Tallahassee example of reluctant, ultimate disclosure,  the City of Sunrise refused to even confirm or deny the mere existence of records relating to the City's ownership and general use of the these devices. (Their response to Mr. Wessler's public records request can be found here). Fortunately for freedom loving Floridians, Mr. Wessler is a legal beast and he knows his stuff.(As evidenced by his brutally accurate response which can be found here).

Not only did Mr. Wessler basically inform counsel for the City of Sunrise that they've misinterpreted the law, but he points out (humorously I might add), that the City has already confirmed that they own at least one Stingray.

It seems that Mr. Wessler has pulled on a thread that could unravel into a tangled mass of unpleasant discoveries about how Florida police agencies have been going about securing evidence in their investigations.

Regardless of how these two individual cases are resolved, it seems clear that even the state level actors are jumping on the widespread, warrantless bandwagon.