This Is How Many Stingray Devices Exist in America
An exclusive Vocativ survey of official documents revealed just how many of these surveillance gadgets the president has at his disposal
The term “stingray” is like “Kleenex” — in that it’s a brand name that became so prominent, it’s used to describe any similar product. The federal government tends to call these devices “cell-site simulators,” and they’re also known as IMSI catchers. [previous posts here on MesaZona]
Here's how Stingray works
Whatever you call them, they share a handful of things in common: They’re illegal for civilians to use; they’re expensive, ranging from some $40,000 to more than half a million dollars if you include accessories; their legality is still being figured out in our court system; and they vacuum up cell phone locations. Strikingly, only a handful of states, including California, Utah, Virginia, and Washington, actually require a warrant for their use, and to date there is no federal law that regulates them.
Depending on the make and model, stingrays may be used just to track cell phone locations, or they may also intercept live phone calls, read outgoing text messages, or scramble nearby cell phone signals. Stingrays vary in size, are often referred to as roughly the size of a suitcase, and are often carted along in either the trunks of police cars or, as is the case with the U.S. Marshals service, flown in planes to search for individual phones. And they’re everywhere.
Almost by definition, it’s impossible paint a comprehensive look at stingrays in the U.S. That’s largely due to the fact that, as the FBI has testified in an affidavit, the devices came with nondisclosure agreements and police departments and agencies often promise the FBI to never admit they have such devices. According to a 2014 memo uncovered by the investigative journalism nonprofit Oklahoma Watch, the FBI has instructed local police to use stingrays for “LEAD PURPOSES ONLY,” and states that they “may not be used as primary evidence in any affidavits, hearings or trials.”
“The big concern with stingrays is we still don’t know exactly how they’re used and where they’re used,” Jennifer Lynch, an attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation who specializes in privacy and civil liberties, told Vocativ.That secrecy means it’s impossible for the public to know, at the moment, exactly how many stingrays are out there.
But thanks to law enforcement purchase orders unveiled by Freedom of Information Act requests from the ACLU, FOIA journalism nonprofit MuckRock, and the Center for Human Rights and Privacy, as well as news reports from investigative reports at local news outlets around the country, Vocativ compiled all known stingray purchase orders across the country.
The result is that state, county, and local police departments have acquired, between 2001 and 2015, a minimum of 124 stingrays (Additional stingrays are owned by federal agencies, more on that later). We’ve made the raw data available here.
The Florida-based Harris corporation, which creates the vast majority of known law enforcement stingrays, trademarked its original StingRay device in 2003. But it wasn’t until after the 2007 or 2008 release of the StingRay II, which included a GPS antennae to upgrade its phone location tracking, that the devices began really spreading across the country.
More information how these networks work [about 30 minutes]
There’s little doubt that the number of stingrays is only going to increase. Thanks to a major report ordered by the House Oversight Committee and released in December, the public now has insight into how many stingrays have been purchased by federal agencies. In total, there were 347, with the FBI purchasing 194 between 2011 and 2014 alone.
Members of Congress who want to create a set of federal rules to guide how police use stingrays have cited that study, and introduced a bill twice in the past two years to regulate the devices. So far, though, there’s been little interest in Congress, despite stingrays’ potential constitutional problems.
“The way that stingrays operate is they collect information about every phone that is in range of the stingray, and that’s a huge privacy invasion,” Lynch, the EFF lawyer, said. “The 4th Amendment to the Constitution protects all of us in the U.S. against unlawful searches and seizures and requires a warrant. This is definitely a search of cellphone info.”
Here's how Stingray works
Almost by definition, it’s impossible paint a comprehensive look at stingrays in the U.S. That’s largely due to the fact that, as the FBI has testified in an affidavit, the devices came with nondisclosure agreements and police departments and agencies often promise the FBI to never admit they have such devices. According to a 2014 memo uncovered by the investigative journalism nonprofit Oklahoma Watch, the FBI has instructed local police to use stingrays for “LEAD PURPOSES ONLY,” and states that they “may not be used as primary evidence in any affidavits, hearings or trials.”
“The big concern with stingrays is we still don’t know exactly how they’re used and where they’re used,” Jennifer Lynch, an attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation who specializes in privacy and civil liberties, told Vocativ.That secrecy means it’s impossible for the public to know, at the moment, exactly how many stingrays are out there.
The result is that state, county, and local police departments have acquired, between 2001 and 2015, a minimum of 124 stingrays (Additional stingrays are owned by federal agencies, more on that later). We’ve made the raw data available here.
More information how these networks work [about 30 minutes]
There’s little doubt that the number of stingrays is only going to increase. Thanks to a major report ordered by the House Oversight Committee and released in December, the public now has insight into how many stingrays have been purchased by federal agencies. In total, there were 347, with the FBI purchasing 194 between 2011 and 2014 alone.
Members of Congress who want to create a set of federal rules to guide how police use stingrays have cited that study, and introduced a bill twice in the past two years to regulate the devices. So far, though, there’s been little interest in Congress, despite stingrays’ potential constitutional problems.
“The way that stingrays operate is they collect information about every phone that is in range of the stingray, and that’s a huge privacy invasion,” Lynch, the EFF lawyer, said. “The 4th Amendment to the Constitution protects all of us in the U.S. against unlawful searches and seizures and requires a warrant. This is definitely a search of cellphone info.”
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