City of Pasadena agendizes purchase of a cell site simulator (stingray) with no usage policy Pasadena, the Socal city that among other things houses Cal-Tech, is following in the City of Vallejo’s inglorious foosteps by putting the purchase of a…
Category: Cell Site Simulators
Stingray Secrecy and the San Jose Police Department
Since 2014, San Jose has been claiming that a non-disclosure agreement with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) pertaining to its purchase of a cell-site simulator from Harris Corporation is completely exempt from disclosure. After more than seven years, the San Jose Police Department released…
FBI Will Neither Confirm or Deny the Existence of the Documents I Just Printed
This headline, from reporter Dell Cameron in a Gizmodo article about a federal lawsuit filed by the ACLU against the FBI, highlights the public records work of Oakland Privacy’s Mike Katz-Lacabe. Here are 26 of them, compiled by Mike Katz-Lacabe at…
Public Records: Long Beach PD
The Aaron Swartz Police Surveillance Project and Open the Government teamed up to file suit against the Long Beach Police Department for withholding requested records. In response to the lawsuit, a number of records have been released about the Long…
Public Records Suit Against the Long Beach Police Department
Aaron Swartz Day Police Surveillance Project (a satellite public transparency project run by Aaron Swartz Day and inspired by Oakland Privacy) and Open the Government (a DC-based transparency org) have filed a joint lawsuit against the Long Beach Police Department…
Writ of Mandate Granted in Oakland Privacy vs. Vallejo
You can read it below. The decision has been added to the Westlaw database. Oakland Privacy v. City of Vallejo, No. FCS054805, 2020 WL 8019580, at *1 (Cal.Super. Nov. 23, 2020).
Vallejo Stingray Use Policy Up for Public Comment at October 27 City Council Meeting
Update: 11-17-2020 The Vallejo City Council incorporated changes requested by Oakland Privacy, ACLU and EFF to strengthen the use policy, including restrictions on First Amendment use, datasharing with federal immigration, publishing a quarterly log, and returning to Council for any…
What Can We Learn From Cell Site Simulator Logs
by Mike Katz-Lacabe We recently obtained and reviewed cell site simulator (CSS) logs from a number of police departments to see what we could learn about how they are used. Cell site simulators, frequently referred to as stingrays, are devices…
Oakland Privacy Sues Vallejo Over Stingray Purchase
by Mike Katz-Lacabe Update 6/1/2020 Oakland Privacy and resident-plaintiffs Solange Echeverria and Daniel Rubins sued the City of Vallejo over their recent stingray purchase. In the complaint, Oakland Privacy states that the purchase violated state law by voting to acquire…
Berkeley Law panel on Stingrays
On March 8, 2017 at 12:45pm, panelists Professor Catherine Crump, Steve Trush, and Oakland Privacy member Brian Hofer will speak at the Berkeley Information Privacy Law Association’s “What are Stingrays?”, regarding cell site simulator use by law enforcement. Watch the…