FBI: Hurricane Katrina Made It Clear We Just Don't Have Enough Stingray Devices
from the because-weather dept
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the federal government stepped up to assure the nation that as horrifically damaging as the storm was, we would all come out of it OK.*
*Offer does not apply to affected residents of New Orleans.
President Bush let us know that FEMA head "Brownie" (born Michael D. Brown) was doing a "heckuva job" botching the government's response. The New Orleans Police Department worked hard to secure critical infrastructure, going so far as to show up in civilian clothes, armed with unapproved weapons. And the FBI, which sent its people to assist in search and rescue operations and to help curtail post-storm looting, made sure an unprecedented tragedy wouldn't go to waste.
MuckRock's Shawn Musgrave points out that, hidden among the 5,000 heavily redacted pages it received in April in "response" to its FBI-Stingray query, the agency's Katrina experience somehow made Stingray acquisition a priority.
A year later, as part of post-Katrina review, the FBI’s WITT requested funding for additional equipment from Harris Corporation, which manufactures the StingRay line of cell phone trackers. Two drafts of the same memo (draft 1) and (draft 2) from July 2006, each with competing redactions, together weave a partial glimpse of WITT’s justification.
[...]
“In the summer of 2005, the U.S. Gulf Coast bore the brunt of several hurricanes, including Hurricane Katrina which severely degraded the capabilities of the [redacted],” the memo reads in part. Subsequent, heavily redacted sentences suggest that the storm crippled the FBI’s capacity to conduct certain types of cell phone tracking operations via equipment on-hand at the time of landfall.
The redactions make it impossible to determine why exactly the agency felt the acquisition of more cellphone-tracking technology was a must post-Katrina. Perhaps the agency needed hardware upgrades to existing equipment that functioned in a less-than-ideal manner when local cell infrastructure suffered damage. Maybe it lent some devices to the New Orleans PD and was having trouble getting them back. Maybe it just wanted more IMSI catchers. No matter the stated reason, it can safely be assumed that post-act of God requisition processes receive less scrutiny than those made during times of relative peace and safety. Terrorism and drug dealing may have been off the table in terms of justifications, but any good government agency knows "national disaster" is spelled "O-P-P-O-R-T-U-N-I-T-Y." The FBI is no exception.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: fbi, hurricane katrina, imsi catchers, stingray, surveillance
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
You know, it wouldn't have surprised me if that had instead led to the greatest amount of LEOs killed at one time by civilians as people sought to protect themselves from these 'looters'.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Officers of the law must always be clearly distinguishable from regular citizens. I you want to dress up like a heavily armed thug instead and get your bollocks shot off because a scared and confused citizen thought you meant harm, I got your sign right here!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Cop's Rights
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Cop's Rights
It is, but it has been happening since the first time another man sought to rule over the other. The people looking to obtain power are the ones that should not have it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
U.S. Govt grant based on the terms of that grant.
Oh, I forgot, it's nothing because nobody in the government gives a fuck about accountability and integrity!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Do you also complain when the publicly financed NASA develops technology that's useful for more than just space travel?
IMSI catchers on petty crime are the teflon pan of law enforcement.
Now of course most uses of teflon pans are not straightforward breaches of constitutional guarantees.
But then you argued misappropriation of funds because the IMSI catchers proved to be useful for more than just catching terrists. Why let them go to waste?
I mean, other than it's illegal and a fundamental violation of the means permitted in the government's job description?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
If the IMSI are useful to catch terrorists they do not need to go to waste. Just use them to catch the damn terrorists.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
There are not enough terrorists around for all the IMSI catchers. Heck, there are not enough warrants around for all the IMSI catchers, particularly without bullshitting the judges.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
Space travel, as stated when the money was asked for and granted. If they wanted helmets to use as wastebaskets, that's what they should have asked for.
"There are not enough terrorists around for all the IMSI catchers."
Then they should not have bought so many ISMI catchers in the first place. At least not with money granted for antiterrorist fight. And doing so still looks to me as a misuse of funds.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
They found that with the corporate cell towers off the air, their Stingrays didn't have anyone to hand off to other than other stingrays.
Thanks, FBI, for your ad-hoc cell phone connectivity!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Hurricane Katrina is the perfect choice
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
come on over here and have nice stingray device for dinner.
Yummmmmy stuff
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Well - they were obviously looking for the guy responsible...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Well - they were obviously looking for the guy responsible...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Well - they were obviously looking for the guy responsible...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Obat Tradisional Benjolan Di Dada
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Hurricane Katrina
Paul Harris, Author, Diary From the Dome Reflections On Fear and Privilege During Katrina
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Well, not much of a surprise here
Katrina occasioned a lot of petty crime.
So the application is rather more than less expected.
The interesting question rather is how high up the rationale "we need more money for illegal operations" carries weight. Because that's the level where you need to start pruning in order to bring back law enforcement into honoring constitutional restraints.
I suspect that it's pretty damn high up.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I guess they are afraid of national security arguments and bow before law enforcement agencies but perhaps same penny pinchers have seen the good sight of this.
If the government is providing "some" cell coverage they can save money on improving their real networks.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The FBI needs this to do their job
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: The FBI needs this to do their job
They'll probably track down via telephone transcriptions some guy who repeatedly left the air condition running with open windows and sue him for a few cool billions and multiple counts of manslaughter.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I mean, building a coastal city below sea level is obviously not such a bright idea in the first place, especially when you're right in the middle of hurricane territory. But they got lucky for a while.
When the inevitable finally happened, amid environmental and political circumstances that guarantee that, for the near future at least, the sea level will keep rising and hurricanes will get worse, that really should have been a wake-up call. But did they listen?
Of course not. These are people who live on the coast, below sea level, in hurricane territory! So obviously they do the dumbest thing possible: they rebuild.
Kinda makes me wonder what it will take for them to actually get the message: that's a really stupid place to live, and it ought to be abandoned before more tragedies strike.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]