<div class="">
<div class="">
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/"><img src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/misc/nytlogo153x23.gif" alt="The New York Times" align="left" border="0" hspace="0" vspace="0"></a>
</div>
<div class="">
</div>
</div>
<br clear="all"><hr align="left" size="1">
<div class="">November 26, 2012</div>
<h1>City Is Amassing Trove of Cellphone Logs</h1>
<h6 class="">By
<span>
<a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/joseph_goldstein/index.html" rel="author" title="More Articles by JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN"><span>JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN</span></a></span></h6>
<div id="articleBody">
<p>
When a cellphone is reported stolen in New York, the Police Department
routinely subpoenas the phone’s call records, from the day of the theft
onward. The logic is simple: If a thief uses the phone, a list of
incoming and outgoing calls could lead to the suspect. </p>
<p>
But in the process, the <a title="New York Police Department" href="http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/home/home.shtml">Police Department</a>
has quietly amassed a trove of telephone logs, all obtained without a
court order, that could conceivably be used for any investigative
purpose. </p>
<p>
The call records from the stolen cellphones are integrated into a
database known as the Enterprise Case Management System, according to
Police Department documents from the detective bureau. Each phone number
is hyperlinked, enabling detectives to cross-reference it against phone
numbers in other files. </p>
<p>
The subpoenas not only cover the records of the thief’s calls, but also
encompass calls to and from the victim on the day of the theft. In some
cases the records can include calls made to and from a victim’s new
cellphone, if the stolen phone’s number has been transferred, three
detectives said in interviews. </p>
<p>
Police officials declined to say how many phone records are contained in
the database, or how often they might have led to arrests. But police
documents suggest that thousands of subpoenas have been issued each
year, with each encompassing anywhere from dozens to hundreds of phone
calls. </p>
<p>
For example, T-Mobile, which has a smaller market share than some of its
competitors, like Verizon, fulfilled 297 police subpoenas issued in
January 2012, according to a police document. </p>
<p>
To date, phone companies have appeared willing to accede to the Police
Department’s requests for large swaths of call records. Memos issued
Sept. 28 by the chief of detectives, Phil T. Pulaski, instruct
detectives to prepare subpoenas for stolen phones assigned to AT&T,
Verizon, T-Mobile or Metro-PCS. With these carriers, the police do not
generally seek the victims’ consent; in fact, the subpoenas are executed
without the victims’ knowledge. (It does not appear that subpoenas are
issued when the stolen phone is served by Sprint Nextel. In those cases,
detectives are instructed to ask the victim to fill out consent forms
that authorize Sprint Nextel to release call records and location
information to the police.) </p>
<p>
“If large amounts of victim phone records are being collected and added
to a searchable database, it’s very troubling,” said Michael Sussmann, a
lawyer who represents wireless carriers, in a phone interview. </p>
<p>
“We’re all used to the concept of growing databases of criminal information,” Mr. Sussmann, of the firm <a title="Perkins Coie" href="http://www.perkinscoie.com/">Perkins Coie</a>, said, “but now you’re crossing over that line and drawing in victim information.” </p>
<p>
Police officials would not say if detectives had used the call records
of any cellphone theft victims in the course of investigating other
crimes. Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, did not
reply to more than half a dozen requests for comments. </p>
<p>
The practice of accumulating the phone numbers in a searchable database
is “eye-opening and alarming,” a civil rights lawyer, Norman Siegel,
said when told of the protocol for subpoenaing phone records. “There is
absolutely no legitimate purpose for doing this. If I’m an innocent New
Yorker, why should any of my information be in a police database?”
</p>
<p>
Mr. Siegel also said the Police Department should not be permitted to
hold on to phone records indefinitely if the records were not relevant
to active criminal investigations. </p>
<p>
Nationwide, cellphone carriers reported receiving about 1.5 million
requests from law enforcement for various types of subscriber
information in 2011. </p>
<p>
Representative <a title="Edward J. Markey" href="http://markey.house.gov/">Edward J. Markey</a>,
a Massachusetts Democrat who is co-chairman of the Bipartisan
Congressional Privacy Caucus, began seeking information this year about
how cellular carriers handle law enforcement’s requests for subscriber
information. And on Thursday, a Senate committee will consider changes
to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. </p>
<p>
Mr. Sussmann suggested that the Police Department could limit its
subpoenas to phone calls beginning on the hour, not the day, of the
theft, and ending as soon as the victim has transferred the number to a
new phone. </p>
<p>
According to documents reviewed by The New York Times, the police
subpoenas seek call records associated with the telephone number of the
stolen phone. </p>
<p>
As a result, three detectives said in interviews, the phone companies’
response sometimes includes call records for not only the stolen phone,
but also the victim’s new phone, depending on variables like how quickly
the victim transfers the old phone number to a new handset and how many
days of calls the subpoena seeks. </p>
<p>
One detective said the subpoenas from recent cases typically requested
about four days of phone records, but documents reviewed by The Times
indicate that the subpoenas can cover longer periods, sometimes as much
as two weeks or more. </p>
<p>
In interviews, detectives said that if an arrest occurs, it is often a
result of earlier investigative steps. Chief Pulaski’s memos from Sept.
28 instruct detectives to use any tracking or location application on
the victim’s phone to track down a suspect. Victims are asked to
immediately call the phone carrier and learn the details of any phone
calls placed after the theft. In addition, detectives ask the victim not
to transfer their phone number to a new phone for about four days.
Finally, detectives are then required to prepare a subpoena, the results
of which usually take a few weeks. </p>
<p>
By then, most of the unsolved phone cases have been put on the back
burner, and the subpoenaed records seldom lead to an arrest, four
current and retired detectives said in interviews. </p>
<div class="">
</div>
</div>
<br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)<br><a href="mailto:art.deco.studios@gmail.com" target="_blank">art.deco.studios@gmail.com</a><br><br><img src="http://users.moscow.com/waf/WP%20Fox%2001.jpg"><br><br>