FBI would rather prosecutors drop cases than disclose stingray details

Not only is the FBI actively attempting to stop the public from knowing about stingrays, it has also forced local law enforcement agencies to stay quiet even in court and during public hearings, too. An FBI agreement, published for the first time in unredacted form on April 7, clearly demonstrates the full extent of the agency’s attempt to quash public disclosure of information about stingrays. The most egregious example of this is language showing that the FBI would rather have a criminal case be dropped to protect secrecy surrounding the stingray. The new document, which was released April 7 by the New York Civil Liberties Union in response to its March 2015 victory in a lawsuit filed against the Erie County Sheriff’s Office in Northwestern New York, includes this paragraph:

"In order to ensure that such wireless collection equipment/technology continues to be available for use by the law enforcement community, the equipment/technology and any information related to its functions, operation and use shall be protected from potential compromise by precluding disclosure of this information to the public in any manner including but not limited to: press releases, in court documents, during judicial hearings, or during other public forums or proceedings."

In the version of the document previously obtained in Minnesota, the rest of the sentence after the phrase "limited to" was entirely redacted. Mariko Hirose, a NYCLU staff attorney, said that she has never seen an agreement like this before. "This seems very broad in scope and undermines public safety and the workings of the criminal justice system," she said.