Judge forces Florida police to release court documents about stingray cell phone trackers

In a victorious decision for the ACLU, a Florida Judge has forced the state police to release documents describing its use of stingray cell phone trackers.

The emergency motion and subsequent decision came as a result of a court case in Tallahassee, Florida where police testified using stingray technology to track a cell phone inside a suspect’s apartment without obtaining the necessary warrant. The ACLU then tried to obtain court papers but were thwarted by federal marshals seeking to keep public papers accessible to the public, as required by law.

According to court rules and the 1st Amendment, the law “requires judges to retain copies of judicial records and to make them available to the public, but the court (and the detective) completely flouted those requirements ” when “the local police allowed the records to disappear by letting the U.S.