House report urges clearer guidance on cellphone technology

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The report says the Justice Department has 310 devices across its component agencies — including the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service — and spent more than $71 million between fiscal years 2010 and 2014 to acquire and use the technology, with individual devices costing as much as $460,000. The Department of Homeland Security has 124 cell-site simulation devices, according to the report.

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Local police departments across the country have used them repeatedly, too, and the Internal Revenue Service says it’s deployed the technology to pursue investigations into money laundering, identity theft and other crimes.

The Justice Department issued new policies last year aimed at ensuring that federal law enforcement officials obtain a search warrant before using the technology, excluding certain emergency circumstances. The policy applied only to federal agencies within the Justice Department and not, as some privacy advocates had hoped, to state and local law enforcement whose own use of cell-site simulators has drawn scrutiny from judges. The Department of Homeland Security issued its own, similar policy.

But the House committee said there should be more consistent standards covering local agencies as well.

The House committee made several recommendations, including calling on state and local agencies to adopt policies that are on par with those in use by the Justice and Homeland Security departments.

The report also criticized the use of non-disclosure agreements that state and local law enforcement agencies sign with the FBI and the manufacturer selling the device. Those agreements, which prohibit local authorities from discussing their use of the simulators in court, “should be replaced with agreements that require clarity and candour to the court whenever a cell-site simulator has been used by law enforcement in a criminal investigation,” according to the House report.

And it said the federal government should make funding to local agencies for cell-site simulators contingent on a requirement that they adopt “new and enhanced” guidelines of the Justice and Homeland Security departments.

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Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP

Eric Tucker, The Associated Press