D.C. Court of Appeals: tracking phones without a warrant is unconstitutional

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Richard Forno <rforno () infowarrior org>
> Date: September 21, 2017 at 6:00:48 PM EDT
> To: Infowarrior List <infowarrior () attrition org>
> Cc: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
> Subject: D.C. Court of Appeals: tracking phones without a warrant is unconstitutional
>
> D.C. court rules tracking phones without a warrant is unconstitutional
>
> https://www.cbsnews.com/news/d-c-court-rules-warrant-is-required-for-stingray-cell-phone-tracking/
>
> Law enforcement use of one tracking tool, the cell-site simulator, to track a suspect's phone without a warrant 
> violates the Constitution, the D.C. Court of Appeals said Thursday in a landmark ruling for privacy and Fourth 
> Amendment rights as they pertain to policing tactics.
>
> The ruling could have broad implications for law enforcement's use of cell-site simulators, which local police and 
> federal agencies can use to mimic a cell phone tower to the phone connect to the device instead of its regular 
> network. 
>
> In a decision that reversed the decision of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia and overturned the 
> conviction of a robbery and sexual assault suspect, the D.C. Court of Appeals determined the use of the cell-site 
> simulator "to locate a person through his or her cellphone invades the person's actual, legitimate and reasonable 
> expectation of privacy in his or her location information and is a search." 
>
> The Fourth Amendment guarantees, "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, 
> against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable 
> cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or 
> things to be seized."
>
>
> Play Video
> Secret tracking of cellphones
>
> D.C. Metropolitan Police's use of such cell-site simulator technology to nab suspect Prince Jones in 2013 "violated 
> the Fourth Amendment," the court decided against the U.S. government on Thursday. 
>
> "We thus conclude that under ordinary circumstances, the use of a cell-site simulator to locate a person through his 
> or her cellphone invades the person's actual, legitimate and reasonable expectation of privacy in his or her location 
> information and is a search," the court ruling said. "The government's argument to the contrary is unpersuasive."
>
> A December 2016 report from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee found U.S. taxpayers spent $95 
> million on 434 cell-site simulator devices between 2010 and 2014, with the price tag for a single device hovering 
> around $500,000.
>
> "While law enforcement agencies should be able to utilize technology as a tool to help officers be safe and 
> accomplish their missions, absent proper oversight and safeguards, the domestic use of cell-site simulators may well 
> infringe upon the constitutional rights of citizens to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures, as well as 
> the right to free association," the report said.
>
> Under former Attorney General Eric Holder — under some pressure from Congress — the Department of Justice in 2015 
> issued a policy that federal authorities could only use cell-site simulators with a warrant. But that policy was 
> never inked into law, and policies can change. Attorney General Jeff Sessions' tough-on-crime stance has worried some 
> privacy advocates as to how he might use tools like cell-site simulators. 
>
> © 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.



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