Tracking Stingray: Detroit’s Bottom Feeder
by Caleb Lalinsky
Join members of Detroit DSA’s Defund the Police campaign to make a public comment and let them know that they must defund the police and refund Detroit!
Detroit is host to one of the most technologically advanced surveillance apparatuses of any city in the United States. In the militarized Motor City, law enforcement vehicles troll the streets with briefcase sized gadgets, indiscriminately capturing cell phone data in public and private of up to 10,000 citizens at a time.
Known generically as stingray, a cell-site simulator or an international mobile subscriber identity catcher, these dragnet surveillance devices mimic cell towers, forcing cell phones in as far as a one mile radius to transmit their unique data, including identities, locations and message logs. Some models can drain batteries, block or redirect calls, spoof identities and edit messages.
The technology takes its name from the shark-related fishes that use electrical sensors around their mouths to find and devour prey. They are camouflaged bottom feeders, and for Harris Government Communications Systems Division and other defense contractors that manufacture these devices, cities such as Detroit are the bottom they feed on.
In 2006, Michigan State Police paid $206,500 for the purchase of a Stingray and related cellular tracking equipment. By 2013, the state had used $593,450 of asset forfeiture funds to upgrade and supplement this equipment, including purchasing HailStorm, the most powerful state of the art cell-site simulator available at the time. Oakland county received a $258,370 Department of Homeland Security federal grant towards a similar device, a vehicle to contain it and training in its uses.
In 2017 the Detroit Police Department paid KeyW Corporation $622,000 for their own cell-site simulator.
Field tested in Iraq through the U.S. military’s use of metadata to direct drone strikes, domestic use of cell-site simulators has been justified as a safety mechanism in the war on terror. However, this security precaution has quickly become a surveillance prediction, reinforcing problematic policing patterns and undermining innocence. Michigan State Police have increasingly come to rely on cell-site simulators, using them in hundreds of cases since 2006. It is estimated that these technologies are used about once every three days in Michigan, and in 2018 at least 66 deployments are known to have been made in a 10 month period.
According to the manufacturer’s website, their “Tactical Satellite Communications (SATCOM) equipment [is] currently deployed around the world in many different tactical missions,” such as Warren, MI, where in 2017 I.C.E. used it to locate and arrest a 23 year old undocumented restaurant worker.
Between defense contractors’ non-disclosure agreements and federal laws such as the Patriot and Homeland Security Acts, it can be difficult to learn about these devices and how they are being used. Michigan State Police have said it would be “bad policy to publicly disclose the type and nature of equipment being sought by the law enforcement community…” and the Detroit Police Department is required to notify KeyW of any record requests pertaining to these technologies’ uses, presumably to block legal inquiries.
This has become a sticking point for Detroit City Council’s Public Health and Safety committee, as Mary Sheffield’s proposed Community Input Over Government Surveillance (CIOGS) ordinance would require oversight for the acquisition of additional surveillance technologies and the Detroit Police Department to report to the public what types of surveillance technology they are using and when it is used. Supporting CIOGS would also recognize Detroiters’ rights to privacy by targeting the use of predictive policing, barring the use of crowd roving mobile surveillance technologies, and requiring criminal investigations into misuses with reports made to the Board of Police Commissioners, City Council and Mayor.
“During the pandemic, City Council has forced through $220k for a facial recognition software contract and $1.5 million for gunshot detection technology, and yet there is no similar urgency for affordable housing, unemployment support, or health care services” said DSA member and Defund the Police campaign organizer Anthony D.
“In January, our campaign started phone banking other Detroiters and asking them to sign a petition that pressures City Council to vote against any new budget in March that does not divest funds away from policing and invest them into things like healthcare, housing, and transportation,” explained Anthony D. “By reinvesting money in Detroit’s working class instead of continuing to expand the police budget, we can address the immediate needs of the people rather than those of the politicians and billionaires.”
“It’s a relay, and we have to be ready to take the baton and run with it,” said Liza B., fellow organizer on the DTP campaign. “ We need to understand what a budget is, and what input we are allowed to have. We are contributing the money for this city, so we should speak up. Get your statement together, a good two minute public comment. Pop in and familiarize yourself with the people in office right now.”
“Lead with what you want,” Liza B. continued. “I want to talk about how money is spent in the city and what we are missing in our lives. Everyone has a story. Everyone has a problem in their neighborhood that’s absurd and that they need fixed.”
The Detroit Police Department operates through a threat of punishment and removal of people from our society and does not systematically address what pushes people into poverty and despair. DSA does not assume that people are the problem and that our community is filled with criminals who must be monitored. Detroit DSA’s Defund the Police Committee believes that it is time to reject a reactionary vision of safety as surveillance and champion a proactive approach through investment in housing, transit, jobs and health resources.
The Detroit Socialist is produced and run by members of Detroit DSA’s Newspaper Collective. Interested in becoming a member of Detroit DSA? Go to metrodetroitdsa.com/join to become a member. Send a copy of the dues receipt to: membership@metrodetroitdsa.com in order to get plugged in to our activities! Detroit DSA’s Defund the Police Committee meets weekly on Wednesdays at 7PM. Volunteer with our campaign by filling out this form.
