Privacy SOS

Looks like Chicago PD had a stingray out at the Eric Garner protest last night

Looks like police in Chicago have a tricked out surveillance truck equipped with cell site simulators, a.k.a. Stingrays, that force nearby phones to send data to cops instead of to phone company cell towers. Did those cops get a warrant for that?

Your tax dollars at work: Spying on people just because they demand that the government's agents stop killing black people.

UPDATE: Anonymous has released a video featuring what appear to be Chicago police radio transmissions revealing police wiretapping of organizers' phones at the protests last night the day after Thanksgiving, perhaps using a stingray. The transmissions pointing to real-time wiretapping involve the local DHS-funded spy 'fusion' center.

Watch:

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Below is a rough transcript of what's intelligible from the tape:

(Dialogue starts at 1:05 in the video)

Dispatch: “CPIC [Chicago police's spy 'fusion' center] on the air for a mobile”
Officer 1: “Go ahead”
Officer 2: “Yeah one of the girls, an organizer here, she’s been on her phone a lot. You guys picking up any information, uh, where they’re going, possibly?”
Officer 1: “Yeah we’ll keep an eye on it, we’ll let you know if we hear anything.”
Officer 2: “10-4. They’re compliant, and they’re, they’re doing ok now but she’s spending a lot of time on the phone.”
Officer 1: “10-4”

Then there’s a brief conversation about one of the officers calling the other’s cell phone.

A longer clip of the audio is available here.

UPDATE: Journalists have identified Chicago organizer Kristiana Rae Colón, daughter of Chicago alderman Rey Colón, as the likely target of the apparent wiretapping revealed in the video above.

One apparent surveillance target was Kristiana Rae Colón, daughter of Chicago alderman Rey Colón. Kristiana told us that she was the main organizer behind a Black Friday demonstration in Chicago, and identified herself as such to police when asked who was leading the protest.

In a two-minute audio segment, police can be heard alluding to their ability to intercept a female protest organizer’s cellphone traffic.

Colón asked us: “The question is, should you have a warrant before you track or tap my phone?”

“What’s happening … is a template for how civil liberties can be stripped from citizens in any moment of social unrest,” she said. “Police forces are more concerned with protecting retail and commerce … than they are with protecting the rights of people.”

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