Are Police Jamming Cell Phones At Standing Rock Protest? The FCC Should Investigate.

[Commentary] Setting aside my personal feelings about democracy, freedom to peacefully protest, and how the Sioux concerns seem rather justified in light of the Alabama pipeline explosion, this has now raised an interesting communications issue that only a Federal Communications Commission investigation can solve. Are police jamming, or illegally spying, on communications at the protest and associated Sacred Stone Camp?

I have seen a number of communications from the protest about jamming, particularly in the period immediately before and during the Oct 27 effort by police to force protesters off the land owned by Dakota Access Pipeline. The FCC needs to send an enforcement team to Standing Rock to check things out. Given the enormous public interest at stake in protecting the free flow of communications from peaceful protests, and the enormous public interest in continuing live coverage of the protests, the FCC should move quickly to resolve these concerns. If law enforcement in the area are illegally jamming communications, or illegally intercepting and tracking cell phone use, the FCC needs to expose this quickly and stop it. If law enforcement are innocent of such conduct, only an FCC investigation on the scene can effectively clear them. In either case, the public deserves to know — and to have confidence in the Rule of Law with regard to electronic communications.

[Harold Feld is the senior vice president at Public Knowledge]