A legal advocacy group has sued the San Diego Police Department (SDPD) and the city of San Diego in an attempt to force the release of public records relating to stingrays, also known as cell-site simulators.

Stingrays are often used covertly by local and federal law enforcement to locate target cellphones and their respective owners. However, stingrays also sweep up cell data of innocent people nearby who have no idea that such collection is taking place. Stingrays can be used to intercept voice calls and text messages as well.

Earlier this week, a local judge in Arizona ruled that a local reporter could not receive similar stingray documents from the Tucson Police Department because disclosure "would give criminals a road map for how to defeat the device, which is used not only by Tucson but other local and national police agencies."

The First Amendment Coalition, based in San Rafael, just north of San Francisco, filed a state public records request to the police on October 8, 2014, specifically asking for, among other documents:

Records pertaining to the Southern California police department’s possession and use of a cellular phone surveillance device manufactured by Harris Corp. and referred to as an IMSI-catcher (International Mobile Subscriber Identity) or Stingray.These records should include: a) emails, purchasing orders, receipts, grant applications and training materials; and b) documents sufficient to show guidelines, procedures, or restrictions on the San Diego Police Department’s use of the device; c) for the past six months, copies of any declarations/affidavits, motions, forms or other legal documents submitted to a judge or magistrate to obtain judicial authorization for use of the device.



According to the suit, which was filed on Tuesday, the SDPD responded with a two-page heavily redacted document, claiming a legal justification for the redactions.

The response letter, which was signed by Officer Jericho Salvador, concluded: "As to the other items contained in your request, even assuming such documents exist, they would be exempt from public disclosure under the same statutes cited above."

Both manufacturers and law enforcement have been notoriously tight-lipped about precisely how such devices are acquired and implemented. Former Federal Magistrate Judge Brian Owsley (now a law professor at Indiana Tech) has been unsuccessful in his efforts to unseal orders that authorize their use despite intimate familiarity with the legal system. And just last month, local prosecutors in a Baltimore robbery case even dropped key evidence that stemmed from stingray use rather than allow a detective to fully disclose how the device was used.