The District of Columbia law enforcement agency received a special temporary permit (STA) from the FCC to demonstrate a targeted cell phone jammer for prisons. The STA allowed a test on January 8 for 30 minutes between 11:30 AM and 1 PM. However, the DC DoC canceled the demonstration on 1/7 without an official explanation as to why the test was canceled.
My hope is that the DC DoC has recognized that using technology to render a smuggled object useless is stupid compared to preventing smuggling. Whichever way is used to smuggle cell phones into prisons, access to a prison is also possible. Even if the DC DoC had not finished the test itself, the test would likely have been stopped by the courts.
CTIA tries to block a cell phone jamming demo in DC Jail
The operation of such jamming technology is completely illegal under paragraph 333 of the Communications Act, and the Commission lacks the legal authority to authorize violations of this congressional policy to protect the rights of authorized users of the wireless spectrum, CTIA said in a statement to the US court petitioned complaints for the District of Columbia Circuit. In addition, the decision to approve the demonstration without prior notice to the public or the parties concerned, without the opportunity to comment, without consideration of evidence regarding the possible consequences for the legitimate transfer of the operation of the proposed technology and without urgent need of public security the nature of arbitrary and capricious decisions.
The CTIA went to court after receiving no regulatory relief from the FCC.
While we believe that prisoners should not have access to wireless phones while in detention, there are other non-intrusive and legal ways to take the phones out of their hands, said Christopher Guttman-McCabe, vice president of regulatory affairs at CTIA. There are several companies that provide wireless detection systems that can be used by prisons to identify and confiscate phones and do not interfere with wireless communication. As the FCC previously confirmed, Congress has clearly banned the use of cell phone jammers in state prisons.
For the manufacturers reading this story, read this article, they don’t think prison officials should stop the cell phones from being smuggled into the prison or finding and seizing the phones that are there. Instead, the prisons should buy their equipment so that the cell phones do not work and their interest is very high. My feeling is that if prison officials cannot stop the smuggling of cell phones into a prison, they cannot stop the smuggling of weapons, money, and other prohibited items into prisons. What madness does it take to believe that prison officials in large prisons do not have to stop weapons being smuggled into prisons? The public will be significantly safer if the contraband of contraband is stopped in prisons.
Assuming that prison officials won’t prevent the phones from getting into the prisons, why don’t they take advantage of the situation? You should use the legal equipment currently available to monitor prisoners’ cell communications, track the call to the recipient, and then have the recipient arrested for the crime committed. The records of the calls would be great evidence in a court to prosecute criminals who help prisoners intimidate witnesses or carry out other illegal activities. No, they will never do that because it requires real work rather than turning a magic switch like a commentator on a previous post.