The Indiana police state

By now it should be common knowledge that the United States government is covertly looking over the shoulder of countless people across the globe.

The National Security Agency tracks billions of cellphones worldwide, many of which belong to American citizens.  

Now it is being unveiled that this intolerable action of senseless surveillance and government omnipresence is not exclusive to the international, or even national, community.

Local communities are vulnerable, too, through law enforcement agencies including the Indiana State Police Agency.

The Indiana State Police spent $373,995 on a fancy, military-styled piece of cellphone monitoring equipment this year called a Stingray, which can be used from within a vehicle.

The device works in conjunction with a structure disguised as a cellphone tower that can detect the location of each cellphone and record the numbers each one has contacted via calls or texts from about a mile radius.

Currently, the police agency is reluctant to release information regarding how the equipment will be used.

Their coyness makes sense. Such overarching systems of unwarranted surveillance shadowing innocents are illegal under the Fourth Amendment, which assures citizens the right to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects. It is perfectly reasonable to assume that such tools will be abused.

In Florida, for instance, Miami police openly intended to use similar equipment to track a group of protestors at a world trade event.

The Indiana State Police justifies its alarming secrecy by claiming that further disclosure of information concerning the Stingray will harm its ability to investigate crime and terrorism with the device. The terror threat isn’t valid.

Nationwide, billions of dollars are being poured into the construction of an Orwellian state meant to secure us from the microscopic chance of a terrorist attack.

The real worry is that the containment of information regarding Stingray and NSA operations is harming the people’s ability to uncover the criminality of our government.

The secrecy of these programs allows the state to undermine our Fourth Amendment rights.

It is appalling that we are all treated like potential law-breakers as law enforcement agencies illegally search us and then deny they engaged in these activities.

With our local police departments now starting to read our texts and scroll through our contact lists, maybe we’ll finally take it personally and realize how out of control the spy state is.

Indiana could become one of the first states to take critical action in restoring Americans’ privacy.

­— edharo@indiana.edu
Follow columnist Edgar Haro on Twitter @EdHarodude.