Private Investigators Track Disability Claimants with Stingrays

Disability insurance companies often hire private investigators to conduct surveillance on disabled insureds after they file for disability benefits.  In a previous blog post, we discussed some methods private investigators use to monitor disability claimants.  In this post, we will take a closer look at one of the latest tools private investigators now use to assist them with tracking disability claimants—stingrays.

A stingray is a new tracking device that operates as a miniature cellphone tower from inside a private investigator’s vehicle.  A private investigator can use this mobile tower to connect to a disability claimant’s cellphone—even when the disability claimant is not using the phone to make a call—and measure the cellphone’s signal strength.  Once he measures the signal strength from a particular location, the private investigator drives the stingray to another position for another measurement.  After the private investigator does this a few times, the stingray device then uses the collected data to triangulate and locate the disability claimant’s cellphone.  Since most people tend to always carry their cellphones, the device has proven to be an effective locator.

Stingrays are a relatively new technology and therefore the law surrounding the device is still largely unsettled.  The technology is becoming more and more popular, though, in part because of the limitations the Supreme Court put on GPS tracking devices in United States v. Jones.  In Jones the Court held that law enforcement officials needed a search warrant before physically attaching a GPS tracking device to someone’s vehicle because the physical attachment of a GPS tracking device to another’s property constituted trespass.

Because the stingray does not require physical attachment, some police departments have opted to invest in this newer technology, believing that the law permits them to use the equipment without first obtaining a search warrant.  In Arizona, for example, the Gilbert police department has already spent $244,000 on stingray equipment.  Many private investigators also advertise this technology and use it when conducting surveillance on disability claimants.

The legal assumptions that police officers rely upon to justify use of stingray equipment without first obtaining a search warrant are questionable and in dispute.  Civil liberty organizations, like the ACLU, argue that warrantless cellphone tracking is a serious invasion of privacy that is prohibited by the Fourth Amendment.  The Department of Justice, on the other hand, believes that requiring a search warrant is not only unnecessary, but would also severely limit law enforcement’s ability to operate effectively.  Until these issues are resolved by the courts, or until legislatures pass laws addressing stingrays, private investigators will likely continue taking advantage of the law’s gray area by using stingray equipment to assist disability insurance companies with denying claimants’ disability benefits.