[Infowarrior] - Local Police Want Right to Jam Wireless Signals

[Richard Forno]

(Funny how they keep invoking Mumbai as an example for the need to jam  
cellular systems. When will these overly-paranoid LEOs realize that  
the technology is only ONE aspect of a countermeasure, and that a well- 
trained, coordinated, and disciplined adversary will realize this  
possibility and thus would not be dependent on constant communications  
during their operations? While in some cases jamming is a good idea  
(ie, Inauguration) IMHO all this sort of 'solution' does is *slightly*  
reduce adverse consequences while increasing collateral ones. ---rf)


Local Police Want Right to Jam Wireless Signals

By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 1, 2009; A02

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/31/AR2009013101548_pf.html

As President Obama's motorcade rolled down Pennsylvania Avenue on  
Inauguration Day, federal authorities deployed a closely held law  
enforcement tool: equipment that can jam cellphones and other wireless  
devices to foil remote-controlled bombs, sources said.

It is an increasingly common technology, with federal agencies  
expanding its use as state and local agencies are pushing for  
permission to do the same. Police and others say it could stop  
terrorists from coordinating during an attack, prevent suspects from  
erasing evidence on wireless devices, simplify arrests and keep  
inmates from using contraband phones.

But jamming remains strictly illegal for state and local agencies.  
Federal officials barely acknowledge that they use it inside the  
United States, and the few federal agencies that can jam signals  
usually must seek a legal waiver first.

The quest to expand the technology has invigorated a debate about how  
widely jamming should be allowed and whether its value as a common  
crime-fighting strategy outweighs its downsides, including restricting  
the constant access to the airwaves that Americans have come to expect.

"Jamming is a blunt instrument," said Joe Farren, vice president of  
government affairs for the Cellular Telecommunications Industry  
Association. He and others pointed out that when authorities disable  
wireless service, whether during a terrorist attack or inside a  
prison, that action can also stop the calls that could help in an  
emergency. During November's raids in Mumbai, for example, citizens  
relied on cellphones to direct police to the assailants.

Propelled by the military's experience with roadside bombs in Iraq and  
Afghanistan, jamming technology has evolved to counter bombs triggered  
by cellphones, garage openers, remote controls for toy cars or other  
devices that emit radio signals. Federal authorities rank improvised  
bombs, which are cheap and adaptable, as one of the greatest terrorist  
threats to the West.

On Inauguration Day, federal authorities were authorized to jam  
signals at some locations in downtown Washington, according to current  
and former federal officials. The Secret Service and other officials  
declined to provide specific details, some of which are classified.

Most of the nearly 2 million people attending the swearing-in and  
along the parade route would have been oblivious to any unusual  
disruption.

"Chances are, you wouldn't even notice it was there," said Howard  
Melamed, an executive with CellAntenna Corp., a small Coral Springs,  
Fla., company that produces jamming equipment. If someone in the crowd  
was on a call, they might have confused the jamming with a dropped  
signal. "Your phone may go off network," he said. In other cases, "it  
may never signal, if it's a quick interruption."

Industry officials said that radio-jammers work in several ways: They  
can send a barrage of energy that drowns out signals across multiple  
bands or produce a surge of energy on a particular frequency. In other  
instances, the devices detect and disrupt a suspicious signal, a  
technique known as "scan and jam."

Some private citizens, hoping to eliminate cellphone calls in  
restaurants, churches or theaters, have tapped into an underground  
market of jamming equipment that has trickled into the United States.  
But that, too, is illegal under the 70-year-old federal  
telecommunications act, which bans jamming commercial radio signals.  
The Federal Communications Commission has begun to crack down on  
private use, which is punishable by an $11,000 fine.

The U.S. military is capable of shutting down communications across a  
wide area and has done so overseas, including when it has conducted  
raids to capture suspects. To counter explosives, devices can be set  
to jam signals for a distance of 50 to 500 meters, for example, or  
enough to allow a car to pass out of the blast zone of a small bomb.

Some federal agencies, including the FBI and the Secret Service, have  
standing authority to use jamming equipment or can request waivers  
from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, a  
Commerce Department agency, when there is an imminent threat, a  
federal official said.

Jamming has been approved in the past for major events, ranging from  
State of the Union addresses to visits by certain foreign dignitaries,  
according to a federal official who spoke on the condition of  
anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the subject.

After transit bombings in Europe, the Department of Homeland Security  
reached an agreement in 2006 under the National Communications System  
with cellphone companies to voluntarily shut down service under  
certain circumstances, which could disable signals for areas ranging  
from a tunnel to an entire metropolitan region, a DHS official said.

Much of the controversy has been fueled by the growing demands from  
state and local governments.

In the District, corrections officials won permission from the FCC for  
a brief test of jamming technology at the D.C. jail last month, after  
citing the "alarming rate" of contraband phones being seized at  
prisons around the country.

"Cell phones are used by inmates to engage in highly pernicious  
behavior such as the intimidation of witnesses, coordination of  
escapes, and the conducting of criminal enterprises," D.C. corrections  
chief Devon Brown wrote to the federal agency.

The test has been put on hold because of a legal challenge, but the  
city will keep seeking permission, said D.C. Attorney General Peter J.  
Nickles.

Texas prison officials made a similar request last fall after a death  
row inmate placed an illicit call threatening a state legislator, and  
South Carolina corrections officials said their department staged a  
test without permission in November.

In a pilot project, the FBI deputized about 10 local bomb squads  
across the country in 2007 so they could use a small number of radio  
jammers similar to the military equipment used overseas.

The local pleas for expanded permission are beginning to get a  
friendly reception on Capitol Hill. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I- 
Conn.), chairman of the Senate homeland security committee, plans to  
introduce legislation that would give law enforcement agencies "the  
tools they need to selectively jam" communications in the event of a  
terrorist attack, a spokeswoman said.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (Tex.), the ranking Republican on the Senate  
Commerce Committee, has introduced a bill that would allow the U.S.  
Bureau of Prisons and governors to seek waivers from the FCC to jam  
calling at prisons.

"When lives are at stake, law enforcement needs to find ways to  
disrupt cellphones and other communications in a pinpointed way  
against terrorists who are using them," New York City Police  
Commissioner Raymond F. Kelly told a Senate panel Jan. 8. He also  
cited the Mumbai terrorist attacks, when hostage-takers used media  
spotters and satellite and mobile phones to help them outmaneuver  
police at hotels, train stations and other targets.

Backing up such requests are the commercial interests that could  
provide the jammers.

Melamed, with CellAntenna, has worked for several years to open what  
the company forecasts could be a $25 million line of domestic jamming  
business for itself, and the amount could be more for bigger players  
such as Tyco and Harris Corp. He said rules that prevent government  
agencies from blocking signals don't make sense.

"We're still trying to figure out how it's in the best interest of the  
public to prevent bomb squads from keeping bombs from blowing up and  
killing people," he said.

But the cellular industry trade group warns that letting the nation's  
18,000 state and local law enforcement agencies decide when and where  
to jam phone calls would create a messy patchwork of potential service  
disruptions.

Critics warn of another potential problem, "friendly fire," when one  
agency inadvertently jams another's access to the airwaves, posing a  
safety hazard in an emergency. Farren said there are "smarter, better  
and safer alternatives," such as stopping inmates from getting  
smuggled cellphones in the first place or pinpointing signals from  
unauthorized callers.

Still, analysts said, events such as the Mumbai attacks may tip the  
debate in favor of law enforcement.

"Without something like Mumbai, the national security and public  
safety cases would not be as compelling," said James E. Katz, director  
of the Center for Mobile Communication Studies at Rutgers University.  
"Now, the burden of proof has been shifting to people who don't want  
these exceptions, rather than the people who do."