911 can’t always find wireless callers; Outdated technology and privacy settings blamed

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Eric Ross   January 31, 2019

Background:

Recent nationwide tragedies involving 911 call centers not being able to locate callers led News 5 Investigates to question why dispatchers don’t always know someone’s exact location when they call to report an emergency. As our investigation uncovered, outdated mapping technology and cell phone privacy settings are the root cause of the problem. The Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office acknowledged that dispatch centers are in the process of getting caught up with advancements in technology and the center allowed our cameras to go behind-the-scenes to show you some of the challenges dispatchers face when wireless callers dial 911.

Read more at KOAA News HERE

Curbing police data collection aim of proposed SC law: ‘Our rights are being eroded’

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By Andrew Brown abrown@postandcourier.com

COLUMBIA — A top South Carolina lawmaker wants to restrict how police use some of the newest tools available for tracking people’s cell phones and travel in the state, arguing the technology violates people’s rights as American citizens.

House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, D-Columbia, has sponsored two bills this year to either ban or limit police agencies’ use of cell site simulators and automatic license plate readers, two law enforcement tools that are now being used widely throughout the country.

The cell site simulators mimic cellphone towers, allowing police agencies to collect the data and location from every phone in a geographic area.

The license plate readers, attached to police vehicles or located over highways and streets, collects every license plate number it encounters. It automatically records an image of the vehicle and the date, time and location that information is collected.

It’s unclear if Rutherford’s bills will gain any traction in the Legislature. There are many Republicans across the aisle from Rutherford who strongly support privacy rights but many law enforcement agencies see the devices as powerful tools for fighting crime.

Rutherford, a defense attorney and a proponent of civil liberties, believes there aren’t enough checks in place to ensure the technology isn’t being abused. He points out that police currently don’t have to seek a warrant from a judge to use such technology in an investigation.

“Our rights are being eroded and we don’t even know it,” Rutherford said. “Privacy, freedom, the things that are most important to Americans and South Carolinians.”

Read more from The Post and Courier HERE

AT&T’s Mobile 5G Network Goes Live, Service to Launch Dec. 21

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AT&T promised mobile 5G before the end of 2018 and is set to deliver, though cutting it close to the self-imposed deadline.

AT&T lit up the first mobile 5G network in the U.S. today, with service launching in select parts of 12 cities on Friday.

This is not a full-blown launch, and AT&T acknowledged initial reach will be limited to dense urban areas. Still, Dec. 21 will be the first day certain consumers can get their hands on a commercial 5G mobile device  – the Netgear Nighthawk 5G Mobile Hotpot― and connect to a live standards-based 5G network.

“This is the first taste of the mobile 5G era,” said Andre Fuetsch, president, AT&T Labs and chief technology officer, in a statement. “Being first, you can expect us to evolve very quickly. It’s early on the 5G journey and we’re ready to learn fast and continually iterate in the months ahead.”

AT&T noted that initially it will offer “select” businesses and consumers the Netgear Mobile Hotspot, plus 5G data at no cost for a 90 day trial period. In spring 2019, AT&T will start offering the hotspot for $499 and 15 GB of data for $70 per month.

AT&T and Verizon have both announced plans to offer 5G smartphones from Samsung in early 2019.

The 12 cities included in AT&T’s initial launch are Atlanta, Charlotte, N.C., Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Fla., Louisville, Ky., Oklahoma City, New Orleans, Raleigh, N.C., San Antonio and Waco, Texas.

Read more from ECN HERE

Judge: State must prove cellphone tracing technology in Zimmerman murder case

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BLOOMINGTON — The state must provide more information that cellular technology used to gather potential evidence against a Bloomington man accused of killing his ex-wife is reliable, a judge ruled Tuesday.

The hearing in the Kirk Zimmerman murder case pitted dueling experts against each other on technology used to pinpoint the path Kirk Zimmerman’s vehicle may have traveled on Nov. 3, 2014, around the time his ex-wife, Pam Zimmerman, is believed to have been shot in her Bloomington office. The experts also disagreed about how information was gather from cell phone records.

The 60-year-old defendant is charged with killing his former wife.

After a daylong hearing, Judge Scott Drazewski ruled that another hearing will be held Feb. 1 to gather additional information on technology used by FBI Special Agent Greg Catey to gather information on cellphone records for Zimmerman, his former girlfriend Kate Arthur and Eldon Whitlow, the last client to visit Pam Zommerman’s financial services office before she was killed.

The technology known as Real Time Tool measures the time it takes a signal to travel from a cell phone to a tower and back.

Read more from The Pantagraph HERE

Despite Cell Data Privacy Right, Kidnapping Defendant Can’t Suppress Location Evidence

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By P.J. D’Annunzio | January 22, 2019 at 01:09 PM

While recent U.S. Supreme Court precedent states that a search warrant must be obtained in order to retrieve a defendant’s cellphone-linked location data, that rule does not apply retroactively in the case of a man involved in a kidnapping scheme.

After rehearing argument in the matter, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on Tuesday affirmed its previous denial of defendant Jay Goldstein’s motion to suppress his cell site location information (CSLI), reasoning Goldstein had no reasonable right to privacy.

That decision emerged in the wake of last year’s Supreme Court ruling in Carpenter v. United States, in which the high court held that defendants do, in fact, have a right to privacy when it comes to cellphone data and that law enforcement is required to seek a warrant to obtain that evidence.

Despite that, Third Circuit Judge Jane Roth wrote in the court’s majority opinion that the prosecution acted in good faith because at the time its acquisition of the data without a warrant was legal. Prosecutors hoped to place Goldstein at the scene of the crime using the data.

 

Read more from New Jersey Law Journal HERE