Oakland- Oakland Privacy is suing the City of Vallejo after it authorized purchase of a cell phone interception device (commonly described as a stingray) in violation of state law on March 25, 2020. The purchase from vendor KeyW Corporation cost the Solano County city $766,018 dollars. The Oakland Privacy coalition, including Vallejo residents Solange Echeverria and Daniel Rubins, allege that the City of Vallejo purchase violates California Government Code § 53166, a law passed in 2015 as Senate Bill 741 authored by Senator Jerry Hill who represents San Mateo County and Northern Santa Clara County. Mike Katz-Lacabe, Research Director for Oakland Privacy, stated, “By violating state law, the City of Vallejo deprived the citizens of Vallejo of the ability to review and comment on the City’s cell site simulator policy, which itself was not in compliance with California state law. Cell phone interception devices, also known as “stingrays” or “IMSI-catchers” impersonate cellular telephone towers in order to draw transmissions in a targeted area into the device. Once a cell phone connects to the cell site simulator, the cell phone’s IMSI number can be obtained and used to track the location of the cell phone. The Coalition contends the City's action violated state law in two ways -
The City Council failed to approve a usage policy for the device. The required usage policy for the device was not even posted for public review prior to the City Council vote to acquire the device, and the usage policy for the device was not made available to the City Council for review and approval at the time of the City Council vote. -
The usage policy posted to the City of Vallejo website several days after the decision to acquire the device is inadequate inasmuch as it allows use of the device without a warrant in the event of any threat of bodily injury without meeting the law's requirement that the bodily injury be “serious,” and the policy does not indicate by job title the personnel authorized to use the device and access the data from it. The legal complaint may be read here. Plaintiff Dan Rubins commented: "As a long time resident and business-owner, my experience is the City of Vallejo and the Vallejo Police Department regularly disregard the laws around transparency and civic engagement. Now, during a severe health and economic crisis that is already causing a $12M budget shortfall, they want to spend almost $1M to buy a powerful and unnecessary surveillance device while they write its use policy in secret. Their actions flout transparency and procurement regulations that give people a forum to raise these issues that impact all of our civil liberties." The City of Vallejo also signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) with the vendor KeyW Corporation that restricts information about the technical capabilities of the device and requires notification of the vendor prior to the fulfillment of a public records or FOIA request about the device and its use. Plaintiff Solange Echeverria commented: "We are at a critical time where trust of our leaders is of the utmost importance; enacting such policies in secret seriously undermines that trust." The staff report, partially-redacted purchase agreement and Oakland Privacy's letters to the Vallejo City Council prior to and after City Council approval may be viewed here. The lawsuit requests that the Court issue a writ of mandate and an injunction prohibiting the City of Vallejo from acquiring or operating cellular communications interception technology -- or expending public funds to do so -- unless and until the Vallejo City Council approves a usage and privacy policy that complies with California Government Code § 53166, by resolution or ordinance passed at a regularly scheduled public meeting. ### . | 