ACLU: Local Police in Florida Acting Like They’re the CIA (But They’re Not)
https://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security-technology-and-liberty/local-police-florida-acting-theyre-cia-theyre-not
Local Police in Florida Acting Like Theyre the CIA (But Theyre Not)
03/25/2014
By Nathan Freed Wessler, Staff Attorney, ACLU Speech, Privacy & Technology Project at 10:00am
The City of Sunrise, Florida, tried to take a page from the CIAs anti-transparency playbook last week when it responded to an ACLU public records request about its use of powerful cell phone location tracking gear by refusing to confirm or deny the existence of any relevant documents. And the state police are trying to get in on the act as well. We have written about the federal governments abuse of this tacticcalled a Glomar responsebefore, but local law enforcements adoption of the ploy reaches a new level of absurdity. In this case, the response is not only a violation of Florida law, but is also fatally undermined by records the Sunrise Police Department has already posted online.
A few weeks ago, the ACLU sent public records requests to 36 state and local Florida law enforcement agencies seeking information about their use of cell site simulator surveillance devices known as Stingrays. We were partly motivated by the discovery that the Tallahassee Police Department had argued in court to permanently seal court records discussing its Stingray use, apparently in deference to a nondisclosure agreement with the devices manufacturer. Thats pretty offensive, but at least the new Tallahassee police chief has promised to investigate his departments practices. The City of Sunrises position might be even more galling.
Today we sent a reply letter to Sunrise, explaining that its bad enough that the Glomar response has no basis under Florida law. Government agencies are required to respond to a public records request by searching for and releasing relevant documents, or explaining why individual documents fall within one of the narrow statutory exemptions to disclosure. Refusing to even confirm whether records exist violates the letter and spirit of the Florida Public Records Act.
But even more embarrassing for the city is that the Sunrise Police Department has already publicly acknowledged that it owns at least one Stingray. A document posted on the citys public website reveals that in March 2013 the Police Department investigated purchasing a $65,000 upgrade to its existing Stingray device, as well as other related technology and services. (See here for an explanation of the abbreviations found on this form). An agency cannot acknowledge a fact in one context, but then refuse to confirm or deny the same information in response to a public records request. Sunrises response might be laughable if it werent such a bald violation of government transparency laws.
The receipt can be found here (PDF file):
http://dms.sunrisefl.gov/public/AttachmentViewer.ashx?AttachmentID=10781&ItemID=3408