Canadian Police Use Cell Tower Dumps To Text 7,500 Possible Murder Witnesses
from the new-phone-who-dis dept
Every so often, government entities are efficient despite themselves.
In a move they're describing as "extraordinary" and "unprecedented," Ontario Provincial Police will send text messages to about 7,500 people on Thursday to ask for information about an unsolved homicide.
Investigators are calling it a "digital canvass" — the high-tech equivalent of knocking on thousands of doors for information.
The police are utilizing "dumps" from cell towers in the area to obtain these phone numbers. And that's all they've obtained, apparently. Using the list of connected phones in the area at the time of the murder, the police are sending text messages asking recipients to fill out a website questionnaire to help police find the killer.
As much as this might seem like an intrusion, it's probably preferable to the alternative: sending out dozens of officers to question potentially thousands of witnesses. Obviously, it works out well for the police. But it also works out for citizens. Nothing obliges anyone to respond to the unsolicited texts and answering a few questions on a website is far less annoying than being questioned at home by officers peeking through open doors to see if they can spot anything resembling indicia of criminal activity. Why make the entire day a waste? Why not make a few ancillary arrests while investigating an unrelated crime?
Unfortunately, it appears ignoring the message (or sending back "UNSUBSCRIBE") isn't going to keep the cops from using your phone for their communications.
Investigators will also consider calling the numbers of people who don't respond voluntarily, but they would be required to obtain another court order to do so.
The other troubling aspect is that the police obviously have no interest in destroying the phone data they've collected. It appears this will be held onto until the investigation is closed, even though the majority of the harvested numbers -- if not all of them -- will have zero relevance to the investigation other than their proximity to the crime scene.
The police have stressed that responses are completely voluntary, but the plans for follow-up calls suggest the opposite. On the plus side, if someone doesn't want to speak to a cop, getting removed from the list is as simple as filling out a few questions on a website. No details were provided as to how much personal information respondents will have to turn over, though, so this exercise in government efficiency could become just another data-harvesting method. If not subjected to strict controls, any names collected could be run through criminal record databases in hopes of finding active warrants or unpaid fines. If so, it will be tempting to handle more investigations through tower dumps, text messages, and website questionnaires -- what with all the extra arrests and revenue generation that may result from bulk texting.
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: canada, investigation, murder, ontario, ontario provincial police, police, privacy, texting, tower dump, witnesses
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Proves once again...
This proves once again, that every law is enforced by a man with a gun. So when a man with a gun calls you, it really isn't voluntary.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Proves once again...
people absolutely must have the option to shut the absolute fuck up without any additional negative repercussion.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
How to Respond
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
This feels like a typical example of having potential problems because of over-sharing of data. Technically it could be done in a completely anonymous way, but was not. Real shame
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Which of course would probably lead to an in-person visit....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Nothing obliges anyone to respond to the unsolicited texts and answering a few questions on a website is far less annoying than being questioned at home by officers peeking through open doors to see if they can spot anything resembling indicia of criminal activity.
I guess I fail to see how this saves any time or has any investigative value, other than tipping off a suspect that he/she is potentially a suspect.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
This is REALLY lazy, and it endangers people
Second, by compiling this list, they've also compiled a list of people that's also highly useful to the murderer(s). Granted, it's a big list, and it seems unlikely that the murderer(s) will try to kill 7,500 people in an attempt to silence any witnesses...but they don't have to.
Oh, and third: one or more of those phone numbers might belong to the murderer...who might choose to respond with "helpful" eyewitness testimony that is of course completely fabricated.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
So the Police are planning to text all of the 7500 numbers to ask if they know anything about a crime taking place in this specific area?
So what is there to say that the police havent scanned all these phone numbers with their databases to get subscriber info and then used that information to query any CPIC entries for criminal history with the subscriber info?
The Police are going to send out a text message to those who nenevr consented to reciev this information on this crime? How mnay of those mobile phone numbers were people passing thru? How mnay are of people who live there? How mnay are people who just haoppened to be there on the given time period?
This is a huge fishing expedition and I would bet is goimng to freak some of the recipients of this text message out, some people dont follow the news and may no nothing about the crime that took place if at all.
I can imagine the panicked phone calls the Police will get from some mobile phone subscriber about this message they recieved wondering WTF and why am I getting this.
The fact that the cop gobbled up all this cell tower information tells me they already suspected that the person or persons who committed the crime may have had a cell phone on and that they already looked thru the subscriber information of each number and cross referenced it with CPIC for criminal records with the subscriber name
This is a huge privacy issue in my opinion and one that should not be allowed, the fact that this will set a precident is even worse. The fact that the cops gathered up 7500 mobile numbers is bad enough, the fact that they can use this incedent and there blasting out a text message opens the door to further "needs" when a crime has occured to hoover up cell tower info, comb thru it and then point to this case to do the same thing over and over again.
This is the start of a very very slippery slope and I would be dollars to donuts that the Police are not telling everything about what they did with the mobile numbers from the cell tower dump that day, like if they crossed referenced them with CPIC.
This is another reason why the Governmebnt needs to enact and upgrade legislation as to why cellular service providers should be treating their customers information with more privacy and how any movements of a person cell phone and what towers it connects to should be regarded as private and a warrant should be needed to obtain it.
No cellular customer I doubt would want their information turned over without a fight from their cellular service provider without a warrant the fact that cops can hoover up 7500 peoples number without the judge or cellular provider having a WTF moment just shows you how eroded our rights are becoming when it comes to privacy
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
A suspect has already been identified.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
GRRRR! A suspect has already been identified.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Not long after that encounter, did I begin to see multiple people fitting the description of perp...
So my question is, how in the holy fuck is texting thousands of people going to solve this case? People change clothes, people change locations, and more than likely, you'll eventually find dozens who meet the description of that perp...for me, it took only a few minutes to spot a few...What would 12 hours do? The entire population?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
It would not be a bad idea...
It would not be so bad if proper precautions were taken, since it has the potential to save man hours and find witnesses that would otherwise not have been found.
Unfortunately too many people distrust law enforcement and their handeling of data.
Who here believes that they restrict themselves to what is essential?
Who would belive that this is not just a step towards more data collection and especially if they are successful in finding a good lead?
Who belives anymore that there will be the someone competent and just watching over that data is not misused? Someone who would have the power to actually do something when it would inevitably happen.
Law enforcement have gained a deservedly bad reputation for very little gain and thrown this opportunity, to use data in a useful and positive way, away and it will take a long, long time to regain any trust if they ever will.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Cell Tower Dumps Used To Text 7,500 Possible Murder Witnesses
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Cop #1 Lets send a text to all these cell phones to find the murderer.
Cop #2 How will that work?
Cop #1 The cell phone that is shut off is the murderer.
Cop #2 But won't the murderer know we would think that?
Cop #1 Yes he would, but since we didn't catch the murderer in the act they must be intelligent so they would know we would think that.
Cop #2 Oh, so they will not shut their phone off?
Cop #1 Correct. Except being a murderer they won't trust anyone so they will suspect that we will be setting a trap with the texts and will be afraid to receive the text. So the will Shut their phone off.
Cop #2 You truly have a dizzying intellect.
Cop #1 Yes Lieutenant, and that is why I am the Captain.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
The Chief of Police comes into the room and says:
You bunch of fools, we already have the perp. Were just using this as a rouse to deliver a NIT to 7,500 people. And he shakes his head and walks away....
Cop#2 You may be the Captain, but THAT's why HE's the Chief.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
same everywhere...
Now this guy was obviously a terrorist.
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/10/31/montreal-police-spied-on-la-presse-journali st.html
Please note -- it is all completely legal and above-board. This is Canada. You may be on a downhill slope, but we've been living in a feudal democracy for 150 years.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The body (and probably the scene of the crime) was over 500 km away from the cell tower dump.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I sincerely hope the response rate ist pretty close to ZERO.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Awesome doublespeak there.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
What the police are doing here is perfectly reasonable. If one expects them to join the 21st century, anyways. None of this can be characterized as an abuse of power
Where there is legitimate concern is the question of what else might be done with all this data (a.k.a personal information), how long it will be retained, etc.
The actions of law enforcement here are reasonable and legitimate; but the concerns about where this sort of thing might lead are legitimate as well.
This might be an excellent opportunity for general discussion and development of appropriate policy by the law enforcement agencies and the general public -- perhaps even the legislatures.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Info
[ link to this | view in chronology ]