This past April, when the Royal Canadian Mounted Police finally admitted they rely heavily on powerful and controversial surveillance hardware, police forces across Canada scrambled to get legal approval from Ottawa to use the same technology.
“Given recent media events my inspector has asked that I make an official request … for an authorization,” writes a member of the Calgary Police Electronic Surveillance Team on April 6 of this year. “There is some urgency to try and get this authorization in place as we are currently using the device.”
The device in question is an International Mobile Subscriber Identity-catcher — known more commonly as an IMSI catcher, a Mobile Device Identifier, or by the brand name Stingray. The device can track the locations of individual cellphones and scrape identifying information from kilometers away, and have been used aggressively in a variety of criminal cases. Some models are able to intercept calls and messages, although not the ones owned by Canadian cops.
Police forces have been loath to tell the public that they are in possession of the devices.
In documents obtained this week through an access to information request, representatives from Calgary police, the Ontario Provincial Police, and the RCMP all sent letters to Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, or ISED, to seek permission to continue using the surveillance equipment.
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