Pasadena Police Department’s Cellular Site Simulator Deployed 38 Times Last Year

According to a PowerPoint presentation in Thursday’s police oversight commission, the Pasadena Police Department’s Cellular Site Simulator (CSS) was deployed 38 times in 2024, assisting in a range of law enforcement activities, according to the department’s annual report released this week.

Ten of those instances involved local cases, but 28 times the technology was used, it was by other agencies outside of Pasadena.

A Cellular Site Simulator mimics a cell phone tower and tricks nearby mobile phones into connecting to it.

The device uses cellular technology to provide the geo-location of a cellular device.

Although activists have expressed concerns about the technology, it only pinpoints the target’s handset, and not any other device.

Police use the devices to locate suspects when they already know their phone’s identifying information.

The system does not allow investigators to access, read, and/or listen to any communication, data, text messages, emails, etc. from the target’s cellular communication device.

The City is not just allowing use of the technology without accountability. The Pasadena Police Department declined seven requests for use of the CSS — in those cases, four times the warrants lacked probable cause and three times the warrants lacked the specific language necessary to use the cell site simulator.

Police have to get the necessary court order before the technology can be used in order to stay compliant with the Fourth Amendment. A signed search warrant is also required.

Once connected, a CSS can intercept and collect data from the phone, including location data and potentially identifying information.

The device is typically installed in a vehicle. Once the cell phone is tracked to a general location, a handheld device is used to track the cell phone to a specific room or person.

Funding for the cellular device comes from asset forfeiture and not from the City’s general fund. Asset forfeiture is a legal process by which law enforcement agencies take assets from people involved with crime or illegal activity while ensuring that due process rights of all property owners are protected.

Over the past several years, local activists have railed against technology that tracks gunshots and automatic license plate readers.

The American Civil Liberties Union called the CSS device “mass surveillance technology” and said it raises “significant concerns about civil liberties and privacy.”

“In recent years, federal, state, and local officials have increasingly used mass surveillance technologies for domestic criminal and immigration enforcement — raising significant constitutional, privacy, and civil liberties concerns,” the American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement in April.

“Specifically, authorities are now using cell site simulators — originally designed for military use — domestically as a way of collecting unique information about mobile devices in a given area, tracking the location of phones, and intercepting the content of certain communications. The Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, and more than 50 state and local agencies have purchased these devices.”

The device has been used with success to catch criminals in other places.

In 2015, USA TODAY reported that police in Baltimore and other cities used the phone tracker to apprehend criminals suspected of a wide range of crimes from homicide to petty theft.

There are numerous other similar “success” stories. Police say it can also be used to help locate missing persons.

But the technology has been used for other purposes also. According to WIRED magazine, a CSS was likely deployed during the 2024 Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago during widespread protests over the Middle East conflict in Gaza. Protesters faced a massive law enforcement presence, including officers from the Capitol Police, Secret Service, Homeland Security and local police agencies.