Many Police Departments Engage in Warrantless Cell Phone Tracking 85
alphadogg writes with a distressing bit of analysis of the training materials acquired by the ACLU last week. From the article: "Many law enforcement agencies across the U.S. track mobile phones as part of investigations, but only a minority ask for court-ordered warrants, according to a report released Monday by the American Civil Liberties Union. More than 90 law enforcement agencies said they track mobile phones during investigations, but only six reported receiving court-approved warrants after demonstrating that there's probable cause of a crime, according to an ACLU report based on public information requests filed by the group last year."
The ACLU has a handy page allowing you to see if your local PD engages in such practices.
Administrative Subpoena (Score:2, Informative)
It says in many instances the police obtained an administrative subpoena. While it's less of a standard, there is at least some standard. While it's correct to say "police obtain tracking data without a warrant," it would be more correct to say "police obtain tracking data with subpoenas and court orders instead of warrant." The difference being is a cop cannot unilaterally obtain information.
Re:Why do they need a warrant? (Score:4, Informative)
Actually, it is probably not legal to snoop on those cellular frequencies (even if you are not actually decoding the audio data), per section 302(d) [cornell.edu] of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (or, more formally, title 47 USC, chapter 5, subchapter III, Part I, section 302(d)).
Re:What is meant by "tracking" (Score:0, Informative)
He mentioned Obama.
from dec 07
OBAMA! your on video record saying no more warantless wiretapping, thanks for voting yes to it yesterday.