Monday, April 18, 2016

Christopher Currie from the GAO in regard to Homeland Security testimony finds the states are not fully involved in providing assessment of their fiscal issues regarding FEMA. He said FEMA is burdened with more assessment issues because the states are not fully aware of their emergency expectations. He also stated the monies to states are not delayed by the federal government, however, there are several states not distributing their FEMA funds for as long as a year.

Senator Paul asked as to the "Stingray Cell Towers." The reply was that police are suppose to get subpoena before using them. Senator Paul states, "...clearly that isn't happening...." He wants to introduce a bill that would remove the potential of invasive use of these cell towers based in the fact Maryland recently heard a case about them.

March 31, 2016
By Cyrus Farivair

On Wednesday, (click here) the Maryland Court of Special Appeals published a legal opinion finding that state police must not only obtain a warrant before deploying a cell-site simulator, but are required to also fully explain to the court what exactly the device does and how it is used.
As Ars has long reported, cell-site simulators—known colloquially as stingrays, can be used to determine a mobile phone’s location by spoofing a cell tower. In some cases, stingrays can intercept calls and text messages. Once deployed, the devices intercept data from a target phone along with information from other phones within the vicinity. At times, police have falsely claimed the use of a confidential informant when they have actually deployed these particularly sweeping and intrusive surveillance tools....

Liars. Police in the USA can't be a reliable source of information and obviously cameras are an improvement. Lying compromises citizen safety and should never be tolerated.