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The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico has sued the city of Albuquerque, seeking records by the city's police department about its use of stingrays, also known as cell-site simulators.
In May 2017, the ACLU of New Mexico filed a public records request to the Albuquerque Police Department (which has been under federal monitoring for years), seeking a slew of information about stingrays. The requested info included confirmation on whether the police had stingrays, "policies and procedures," and contracts with the Harris Corporation, among other materials. Albuquerque denied many of these requests, citing a state law that allows some public records to be withheld on the grounds that they reveal "confidential sources, methods." So, last week, the ACLU of New Mexico sued.
As Ars has been reporting for years, stingrays are used by law enforcement to determine a mobile phone's location by spoofing a cell tower. In some cases, stingrays can intercept calls and text messages. Once deployed, the devices intercept data from a target phone along with information from other phones within the vicinity. At times, police have falsely claimed the use of a confidential informant when they have actually deployed these particularly sweeping and intrusive surveillance tools. Often, they are used to locate criminal suspects.
A lawyer for the police department did not immediately respond to Ars' request for comment.
APD spokeswoman Celina Espinoza told the Albuquerque Journal in a statement that the department "follows legal standards with the use of any technology," but did not answer further questions.
Source: Ars Technica
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 12 2017, @10:08PM
You have that right. You are legally in the right, not to be mugged on any given day.
Just because you have that right doesn't mean that anybody is guaranteeing that it happens. It's not a prerogative that you can demand of the government. As the Supreme Court has clearly decided, the police have no obligation whatsoever to serve your personal need for safety. You could watch your children be impaled on stakes, your wife gangraped and taken away in chains, and get gangraped yourself before, during and after castration without anaesthetic, and the literal police obligation with respect to that course of events ... is nothing. Even if you called. Even if you called 911. Even if you called 911 multiple times. Even if you were on speakerphone so that they could hear the screams and the laughter.
Oh, I guess you could make a case that they should document the aftermath. For all the good that it does you.
But nobody will have a legal cause for action against you just because on the thirteenth of July, 2017, you didn't get mugged.
I hope that this helps you understand the difference between a right, a privilege, a prerogative, and an entitlement.