A duo of lawmakers who steer the Senate Judiciary Committee are calling on Attorney General Eric Holder to defend new technology in the hands of law enforcement that allows cops to peer inside peoples’ homes without a warrant.
“Technology that can essentially look inside peoples’ homes presents privacy concerns of the highest order,” said Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Patrick Leahy (R-Vt.), the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in a letter to the Attorney General on Thursday.
This week, USA TODAY revealed that at least 50 law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and US Marshals Service, have quietly begun using radar devices that can be deployed against peoples’ homes to see if anyone is inside.
Officers began using the radar systems for two years now, and the Senators are concerned that there’s been no coordination with the courts or with Congress over the legality of their use.
“There has been little to no public discussion of this technology and it is unclear whether agencies are obtaining any legal process – let alone a warrant – prior to deploying it,” said the Senators. They added that a 2001 Supreme Court cases ruling found that “the use of thermal imaging equipment without a warrant violated the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution.”
News that police are using this invasive technology comes less than a month after it was discovered that law enforcement are also using cell-site simulators, known as “dirt boxes” that can be attached to airplanes, and flown over a residential neighborhoods to scoop up enormous amounts of data from individuals’ private cell phones.
Similar technology has long been in use on the battlefield by the US military and intelligence officials to locate terrorists.
The Senators were concerned with this too as well.
“This pattern of revelations raises questions about whether the Justice Department is doing enough to ensure that — prior to these technologies’ first use — law enforcement officials address their privacy implications, seek appropriate legal process, and fully inform the courts and Congress about how they work.” they wrote.
At the end of their letter, Grassley and Leahy called on the Attorney General to “arrange for knowledgeable officials to provide a briefing to Judiciary Committee staff no later than February 13, 2015” on the new technology.
They also demanded information and any other devices in use by police that “raise similar privacy concerns.”
