Baltimore PD Admits to Deploying Cell Phone Data Interceptors in Breach of Federal Law
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A group of advocacy organizations have accused the Baltimore Police Department of violating federal law, by deploying Stingray cell site simulators to track phones and intercept mobile data without an FCC license.
Stingrays simulate 2G cell towers to track a mobile phone’s whereabouts as well as intercept calls and texts, and as one can easily imagine, are quite useful in police surveillance operations. According to The Baltimore Sun, the Baltimore PD has admitted to using the technology thousands of times in criminal investigations. However, the cell site simulators have been shown to disrupt cell signals in the area, including 911 calls.
The formal complaint, which was filed by Laura Moy, a Georgetown law professor representing the three civil rights groups, holds that the Baltimore PD is flouting FCC codes by operating cell towers without the proper spectrum licenses.
Moy’s argument proceeds by interpreting Stingrays as cellular transceivers, thereby bringing the cell site simulator under the purview and regulation of the FCC, which requires a license to operate on spectrum bands that are reserved for wireless carriers. Moy also maintains that in rampantly deploying Stingrays without a license, the Baltimore police interfered with and disrupted cellular network traffic in manner prohibited by the Communications Act.
“Under the Communications Act, to operate a cellular transceiver on licensed spectrum reserved for operation of cellular networks, BPD is required by federal law to obtain a license. But in a clear violation of law, BPD has no license whatsoever to operate its CS simulator equipment on frequency bands that are exclusively licensed to cellular phone carriers in Baltimore,” Moy contends in her FCC complaint. “BPD further violates the Communications Act by willfully interfering with the cellular network through its use of [cell-site] simulator equipment.”
The organizations that leveled these charges, the Center for Media Justice, the Color of Change, and the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute, are calling on the FCC to prohibit Baltimore PD from utilizing Stingrays, according to The Verge. Experts are unclear as to whether the FCC will be receptive to their arguments.
