It is no secret that Minnesota law enforcement generally wants to keep hidden from the people new technology that does surveillance and monitoring of people. Just review the past several years of this blog on matters such as Stingray, Kingfish, and to some extent license plate readers, among other topics I have written about.
It was through data request's that I found out that at least the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), even though the data was limited, owned or operated cellular exploitative devices, such as Kingfish and Stingray. It took the Legislature with questions that more information was given.
But even today the public and Legislature does not know the amount taxpayers has spent or will spend on the Stingray and similar devices since 2014. (See document above, page 7, part of BCA/Harris Corp contract) The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension has told me and the Star Tribune that having knowledge of public dollars spent would be too much info for the bad guys to know. They have even refused to give the general amount spent. As Drew Evans, Assistant Superintendent of BCA, stated to the Star Tribune in written form:
"This would not only endanger the lives and physical safety of law enforcement officers and other individuals, but also adversely impact criminal investigations,” Evans wrote. “Disclosure of this information could result in the BCA’s inability to protect the public from terrorism and other criminal activity because, through public disclosures, this technology has been rendered essentially useless for future investigations.”
So here we have an agency that will neither tell elected officials or the public the general amount spent on devices that can intercept conversations and text messages of people with auxiliary equipment and upgrades such as the "Fishhawk: or "Porpoise", and that collects data on innocent people who may be in the area of the target.
The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to spurn and mock the public's and Legislature's right to know how much it spends on technology that has an acute and extreme involvement with our privacy and civil liberties only undermines the Bureau's credibility.
As I know by the Star Tribune's and my past experience in trying to get the Harris Corporation contract and FBI disclosure agreement, the credibility of BCA with me had never been at it's lowest.
Confidently, the public and legislators will begin to realize the BCA's efforts to hide the amount of public $$$ is not because of criminals and terrorists. The Bureau does not want you to know because they do not want the accountability and inquiry, they so deeply and crucially need on matters of public dollars spent on surveillance technologies that compromise our autonomy, privacy, and civil liberties.
NOTE: This is the full agreement of the contract between the Harris Corporation and the BCA. Also included is the FBI non-disclosure agreement. Courtesy of the Star Tribune.
