TOP TEN REASONS THE LOCAL ELECTRONIC MEDIA WON’T REPORT ON THE FAIRFAX COUNTY COPS ILLEGAL SPYING ON CITIZENS
This story seems to require investigative techniques,
research and confrontation. We don’t do that. That stuff is better left to the,
wadda call those guys? The one’s write things down. Um…writer’s downers, no, no that’s not it, you
know Journalistic –ism –tic people. Those guys.
This is complex and can’t be explained in 15 seconds so it’s
not for us.
So, like, this wrong for the cops to do, like, right?
Reporting on this story might interfere with the ride-along
stories we love so dearly.
This is real news. We don’t do real news. We’re television.
Covering this would eat up at least five minutes of air
time. That’s a full four minutes longer than our usual hard hitting, in depth
investigative news piece.
The story doesn’t have a hap, hap, happy ending! We’re
television. We like to deal in warm, snuggly, happy news.
Like everybody in America, we’re afraid of the cops.
We’re communication majors. We don’t understand this.
This seems a little too controversial for us. We like to
avoid that sort of thing. The sponsors don’t like it.
U.S. Marshals Seize Cops’ Spying Records to Keep Them From the ACLU
A routine request in Florida for public records regarding the use
of a surveillance tool known as stingray took an extraordinary turn recently
when federal authorities seized the documents before police could release them.
The surprise move by the U.S. Marshals Service stunned the
American Civil Liberties Union, which earlier this year filed the public
records request with the Sarasota, Florida, police department for information
detailing its use of the controversial surveillance tool.
The ACLU had an appointment last Tuesday to review documents
pertaining to a case investigated by a Sarasota police detective. But marshals
swooped in at the last minute to grab the records, claiming they belong to the
U.S. Marshals Service and barring the police from releasing them.
ACLU staff attorney Nathan Freed Wessler called the move “truly
extraordinary and beyond the worst transparency violations” the group has seen
regarding documents detailing police use of the technology.
“This is consistent with what we’ve seen around the country with
federal agencies trying to meddle with public requests for stingray
information,” Wessler said, noting that federal authorities have in other cases
invoked the Homeland Security Act to prevent the release of such records. “The
feds are working very hard to block any release of this information to the
public.”
Stingrays, also known as IMSI catchers, simulate a cellphone tower
and trick nearby mobile devices into connecting with them, thereby revealing
their location. A stingray can see and record a device’s unique ID number and
traffic data, as well as information that points to its location. By moving a
stingray around, authorities can triangulate a device’s location with greater
precision than is possible using data obtained from a carrier’s fixed tower
location.
The records sought by the ACLU are important because the
organization has learned that a Florida police detective obtained permission to
use a stingray simply by filing an application with the court under Florida’s
“trap and trace” statute instead of obtaining a probable-cause warrant. Trap
and trace orders generally are used to collect information from phone companies
about telephone numbers received and called by a specific account. A stingray,
however, can track the location of cell phones, including inside private
spaces.
The government has long asserted it doesn’t need a probable-cause
warrant to use stingrays because the device doesn’t collect the content of
phone calls and text messages, but instead operates like pen-registers and
trap-and-traces, collecting the equivalent of header information. The ACLU and
others argue that the devices are more invasive than a trap-and-trace.
Anal searching cops still on the public payroll
It’s one of the most shocking and infamous cases to ever
come out of New Mexico: A man, falsely suspected of carrying drugs, forced to
undergo multiple anal cavity searches.
Now, a year and half after the incident and six months after
a settlement of $1.6 million in local taxpayer money was announced, New Mexico
Watchdog has learned at least three police officers involved in the case are
still on the job, while the status of three others remains a secret.
Deming Police Chief Brandon Gigante told New Mexico Watchdog
all three officers in his department who were listed as defendants in a
subsequent lawsuit are on active duty. Gigante wouldn’t say why or reveal if
the officers were disciplined.
“That is a personnel matter,” Gigante said in a telephone
interview.
Three members of the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office were
also listed in the lawsuit, but county officials refused to answer any
questions about their status in the aftermath of the case involving Lordsburg,
N.M., resident David Eckert.
A settlement was announced in January in which the
64-year-old Eckert will get $950,000 from the city of Deming and $650,000 from
Hidalgo County — a total of $1.6 million for which taxpayers in the two communities
are responsible.
According to the lawsuit, in early 2013 Eckert was pulled
over by Deming police allegedly for not coming to a full stop at a stop sign in
a Walmart parking lot in Deming. Hidalgo County sheriff’s officers also arrived
on the scene.
Authorities suspected Eckert was carrying drugs inside his
anal cavity and over a 14-hour period subjected Eckert to two rounds of X-rays
and three enemas and took him to a hospital in another county where Eckert was
forced to undergo a colonoscopy.
No drugs were found. Eckert also received a bill for $6,000
for the colonoscopy. The case made international headlines.
Two messages left with Hidalgo County Sheriff Saturnino
Madero have gone unreturned.
Hidalgo County Commissioner Darr Shannon told New Mexico
Watchdog, “I don’t know (about the status of the officers). I hate to admit it,
but I don’t know anything … A county commissioner cannot have anything to do
with personnel matters.”
Hidalgo County Commission Chairman Ed “Bim” Kerr referred
questions to the county manager, Jose Salazar, who referred questions to the
county’s attorney in the Eckert case, Damian Martinez.
“I can’t give any comment as to that,” Martinez said when
contacted by New Mexico Watchdog.
Why not?
“I know where you’re coming from, but I’m (part of a)
private law firm and my law firm’s policy is we don’t discuss litigation,”
Martinez said. “Sorry I couldn’t help you, but I like your website.”
If public money has been spent, don’t taxpayers have a right
to know if the officers involved are still on the force?
“It’s (Madero’s) department,” Shannon said. “I would be like
you, I would be wanting to find out for the public, but I’m here to tell you
government works in a way that is extremely odd, especially county government.”
New Mexico Watchdog is in the process of filing an
Inspection of Public Records Act request with Deming and Hidalgo County
authorities, seeking information about the case.
When news of the Eckert case broke, Deming Police Chief
Gigante told KOB-TV, “We follow the law in every aspect, and we follow policies
and protocols that we have in place.”