US Marshals Seize Copies of Local Cell Phone Tracking Records Requested by ACLU

Source: Common Dreams

Published on Wednesday, June 4, 2014 by FireDogLake

US Marshals Seize Copies of Local Cell Phone Tracking Records Requested by ACLU

by Kevin Gosztola

US marshals in Florida seized copies of local cell phone tracking records from the Sarasota Police Department, which the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) chapter in the state had requested. The extraordinarily brazen act was a clear violation of public records law. And the ACLU quickly pushed for a temporary injunction from a judge to stop this from happening again.

The ACLU chapter was seeking records on police use of “Stingray” surveillance devices, which can be used to locate cell phone by acting a like a fake cellphone tower. The technology enables the “electronic equivalent of dragnet ‘general searches’ prohibited by the Fourth Amendment,” the ACLU argues.

The organization has already faced law enforcement agencies which behave like the CIA and refuse to acknowledge whether or not they even have public records related to Stingray surveillance used to track cell phones. But this is a clear escalation and shows the extent to which the federal government is willing to go to protect this new form of dragnet warrantless surveillance from public scrutiny.

Nathan Freed Wessler, staff attorney for the ACLU, told Firedoglake the US Marshals Service sent someone to the Sarasota Police Department from an office in Tampa to seize physical copies of the records which had been requested. Marshals “spirited” them out “from under the noses of Florida residents who had a right to them under state public records law.”


Read more: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/06/04-1