[From article]
In August 2012, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) in Washington, DC entered into a secret agreement with the FBI.
The MPD was promising not to disclose any details about its use of a highly controversial antiterrorism surveillance technology known as a Stingray. About the size of a suitcase, the Stingray simulates a cell phone tower and intercepts mobile phone calls and text messages.
The MPD also agreed that if the department learned that any technical details about the surveillance technology was at risk of being exposed during a judicial proceeding, MPD would contact the FBI so the bureau could ask MPD to "seek dismissal of the case" in order to continue protecting the overall secrecy of the Stingray.
The unusual and potentially illegal arrangement between the FBI and MPD was memorialized in a six-page non-disclosure agreement (NDA) signed by MPD Assistant Chief Peter Newsham [pdf at the end of this story] after the police department requested "certain wireless collection equipment/technology" — what is commonly called the Stingray — manufactured by Harris Corporation, a Florida-based defense contractor.
[. . .]
The purpose of the surveillance technology is to combat terrorism. But according to a document turned over to VICE News last year — MPD's use of a Stingray was first revealed by VICE News in October — MPD planned to use the Stingray to increase the arrests of "fugitives, drug traffickers, and violent offenders (robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, Homicide), while reducing the time it takes to locate dangerous offenders that need to be removed from the streets of DC."
Wessler said last year that the Fourth Amendment rights of tens of thousands of DC residents are likely violated whenever DC police use Stingray, which sends out a more powerful signal than a cell tower and forces all mobile devices to report back serial numbers and locations.
[. . .]
Efforts by journalists and groups like the ACLU to find out how law enforcement has used Stingrays have largely been thwarted because the FBI has intervened in all of the FOIA cases.
Indeed, the NDA says that if MPD receives a FOIA request seeking information about the Stingray, its operating manuals, its software, "and any related documentation," the MPD "will immediately notify the FBI of any such request telephonically and in writing in order to allow sufficient time for the FBI to seek to prevent disclosure through appropriate channels."
[. . .]
"It is extraordinary in that it uses private companies to override federalism and directs local law enforcement to hide information from judges during both the warrant procedure and in subsequent proceedings," she said. "[The FBI is] telling state and local enforcement what they can and cannot do in contracting with a private company…. They're using industry to control the police, and in the process overriding the judiciary. The real shock is that they're hiding it from the judges."
[. . .]
[The bureau] is trying to say out of one side of its mouth that this is a super-secret national security tool," he said, "while on the other side of its mouth it says to every state and local law enforcement agency that comes asking, 'Oh yeah, sure, go ahead and use this — and you can use it to track down stolen cell phones, petty theft, and missing persons.' That does not describe to me a super-secret national security tool."
[. . .]
Washington, DC is unique among US cities in that the US Attorney's office prosecutes a majority of the adult felony criminal and misdemeanor cases. It would be extraordinary if the FBI and/or MPD were successful in convincing a federal prosecutor to abandon a criminal case or to strike lenient plea deals with defendants in cases where a Stingray was used.
A spokesman for the US Attorney's office in Washington, DC, did not respond to a request for comment on whether that ever happened.
https://news.vice.com/article/dc-police-the-fbi-and-their-secret-agreement-to-hide-cell-phone-spying
DC Police, the FBI, and Their Secret Agreement to Hide Cell Phone Spying
By Jason Leopold
September 30, 2015 | 2:45 pm
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