FBI Told Cops to Launder Evidence from Secret Cell Phone Trackers

OFF THE WIRE


(Underground World News) A RECENTLY DISCLOSED document shows the FBI telling a local police department that the bureau’s covert cell-phone tracking equipment is so secret that any evidence acquired through its use needs to be recreated in some other way before being introduced at trial.
“Information obtained through the use of the equipment is FOR LEAD PURPOSES ONLY,” FBI special agent James E. Finch wrote to Chief Bill Citty of the Oklahoma City Police Department.
The official notice, dated September 2014, said such information “may not be used as primary evidence in any affidavits, hearings or trials. This equipment provides general location information about a cellular device, and your agency understands it is required to use additional and independent investigative means and methods, such as historical cellular analysis, that would be admissible at trial to corroborate information concerning the location of the target obtained through the use of this equipment.”

The document, obtained by nonprofit investigative journalism outlet Oklahoma Watch, pertains to the use of cell site simulators, or Stingrays — surveillance technology that mimics a cellphone tower to trick cellphones into transmitting location data and other information, sometimes even the contents of calls.
Learn More:
https://theintercept.com/2016/05/05/f…