Much of the discussion of police militarization has centered on the Department of Defense's 1033 program, through which it "donates" military equipment, including combat vehicles and weaponry, to various law enforcement agencies. National Public Radio provided a dump of all donations between 2006 through April 2014, and many folks have been counting up the M16s, MRAPs, and HMMWVs in their respective areas.
I found something in my county's data that, in some ways, may be of greater concern...
I live in Kentucky, where many folks consider guns a greater birthright than citizenship. I wasn't surprised to learn that Franklin County, Kentucky (where the state capital is located) has secured more weapons through the 1033 program than have all but 3 of the 3134 other counties in the US. (To be fair, Franklin County is home to Kentucky State Police HQ and the State Police Academy; this is not some local county PD gone wild.)
My county has received 22 M16 rifles and 12 M14 rifles. As I was looking through the per-county data from NPR, however, something else caught my eye, namely:
5825-01-613-5120 INTERROGATOR-TRANSPONDER KIT 2 Each
That 13-digit number is the National Supply Number (aka NATO Stock Number); it's basically the "part number" for the DoD supply system, and just about EVERYTHING the DoD purchases has an NSN. You can
search the NSN database at the Defense Logistics Agency website. When I searched for this NSN, I found the following information:
LONGSHIP IS A REMOTE CELLULAR INTERROGATOR NETWORKING SYSTEM. INCLUDES 2MOBILE PHONES, LAPTOP, REMOTE UNIT COMPUTER WITH PCMCIA MODEM CARD, 12V/DC, 3 A POWER SUPPLY (CAR POWER ADAPTER), UNIVERSAL VOLTAGE ADAPTER KIT, RECHARGEABLE BATTERY, AND GOSSAMER POWER OUTPUT (7 VDC, 2A).
Hmmm...I'm a networking engineer by trade, and I don't like the sound of "cellular interrogator networking system"...this thing is meant to be portable, because it has a car power adapter...and I've seen "Gossamer" in connection with cell phones before...let's see what Google can tell me about "Longship"...
Nothing. Zip. Nada.
I waded through the first 4-5 pages of Google results and came up completely empty. That's enough, in and of itself, to raise my suspicions...back to searching by NSN...if I can find out who makes this thing, maybe I can get more information from the manufacturer's website...
Oh, crap. The Longship is made by Harris Corporation. Those are the fine folks who make the Stingray. If you aren't familiar with the Stingray, go read this Ars Technica article RIGHT NOW.
A quick check of Harris Corporation's website comes up empty (no surprise there), but the Ars Technica article refreshed my memory on "Gossamer":
The Gossamer is a small portable device that can be used to secretly gather data on mobile phones operating in a target area. It sends out a covert signal that tricks phones into handing over their unique codes—such as the IMSI and TMSI—which can be used to identify users and home in on specific devices of interest. What makes it different from the Stingray? Not only is the Gossamer much smaller, but it can also be used to perform a denial-of-service attack on phone users, blocking targeted people from making or receiving calls, according to marketing materials (PDF) published by a Brazilian reseller of the Harris equipment.
So, if this Longship box is made by Harris and can power Gossamer handhelds, I need to figure out what else the "interrogation/transponder" Longship can do. A bit more Google-fu led me to
a product flyer for what seems to be a competing product, which helpfully states:
The GX line of GSM interrogators enables operators to conduct network surveys and interrogations thus providing a detailed collection of what handsets are within the GX range. Through the GX functionality the operator can then conduct denial of service, direction finding or other surgical attacks on target phones.
Direction finding? Denial of service attacks? Hoo, boy...
Going back to the NPR data, let's see who ELSE got one of these things...
Just us.
My little county of 25,000 is the only one in the nation that requested this gear - and they asked for TWO of them!
**sigh** The next public meeting of our county's Fiscal Court may prove...interesting. I was planning to ask about the weapons (22 M16s and 12 M14s) and vehicles (5 ATVs, 5 HMMWVs, etc.) they've received, but this...this has me even more upset in some ways.
My advice to you is this - check your local counties' data in the NPR data dump, and check them carefully. There's no telling what one might find.
Friday, Aug 19, 2016 · 5:50:25 PM +00:00
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wesmorgan1
Just a followup to close the topic…
I spoke with the Chief of Police not long after I wrote this article. He informed me that when they requested the transponders, they were under the impression that the devices were basically “emergency cell towers” that they could use to establish emergency cellular service; once they received the devices and learned what they actually did, they were returned to the Federal government. I later mentioned this to an officer of personal acquaintance, and they confirmed that the devices had been returned.
The good news is that they’ve been returned; the bad news is that I never got a chance to check them out firsthand. *grin*