Electronic surveillance

 

American Cops Turn to Canadian Phone-Tracking Firm After Infamous 'Stingrays' Become 'Obsolete'

Law enforcement agencies across the United States are scrambling to secure funding for new cellphone-tracking equipment after the maker of the controversial “Stingray” device quietly announced last year it would no longer sell equipment directly to local law enforcement.

L3Harris Technologies, formerly known as the Harris Corporation, notified police agencies last year that it planned to discontinue sales of its surveillance boxes at the local level, according to government records. Additionally, the company would no longer offer access to software upgrades or replacement parts, effectively slapping an expiration date on boxes currently in use. Any advancements in cellular technology, such as the rollout of 5G networks in most major U.S. cities, would render them obsolete.

“Harris Corporation has advised that effective June 2020 they will no longer provide cellular tracking technology and vital software updates,” the Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD) said in a report from May of this year.

Gizmodo has reviewed similar statements from local California agencies in Anaheim, Ventura County, and San Bernardino. “The Sheriff’s Office cannot obtain upgrades to the current equipment in order to keep up with technological changes in the cellular telephone industry,” a five-year “capital improvement plan” drawn up in Ventura reads. “The current equipment is no longer as useful as it was even two years ago, and will eventually become completely obsolete,” it says.