Appeals Court Rules Against Cell Phone Surveillance Device

BALTIMORE (AP) -- A Maryland appeals court says a clandestine cell phone surveillance device used by Baltimore police in an attempted murder case violates the Fourth Amendment and any evidence collected using it must be excluded.

The Court of Special Appeals issued the order Wednesday in the case of Kerron Andrews, who was charged with attempted murder in Baltimore in 2014.

The order upholds the decision of Baltimore Circuit Judge Kendra Ausby, who ruled that the police should not have used a cell-site simulator device, called a stingray, without a search warrant. Additionally, prosecutors in the case did not initially disclose that the technology was used.

In a separate case last year, a Baltimore detective disclosed that the department had used stingray roughly 4,300 times.

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