Kern County Sheriff Has a DRTbox 1201B Cell Site Simulator

 Cell site simulator  No Responses »
Apr 102015
 

In an April 7, 2015, response to a public records request, the Kern County Sheriff released a quotation from Digital Receiver Technology dated April 8, 2009, for a DRT 1201B 0402/PRS Wireless Receiving System. This came after the Kern County Board of Supervisors approved allocating $193,030 in State Homeland Security Grant Funds (agenda consent item CA-37) at its meeting of December 9, 2008. The background material for this item noted that “The vendor will not permit public disclosure of the equipment features.”

The quotation describes the DRT 1201B as:

Consisting of the following items: 4 RF tuners. 2 wideband processor modules, and embedded/GUI software for all supported wireless formats. Includes Alaska software and a two year hardware warranty are also included. With this configuration, including the TEX and DEX modules, there is 8 empty slot for future processing modules. Unit comes with a DELL 8600 or equivalent laptop to control and operate the unit.

The quotation also describes the DF20C-1 antenna kit as:

Direction Finding antenna, nine 3-inch antenna elements, DRT DF software, Pinpoint geolocation software, DF manual, GPS antenna, 25-ft. cable. This antenna will do direction finding on all cellular formats.

At its meeting on June 7, 2011, the Kern County Board of Supervisors approved (agenda consent item CA-75) an agreement with Digital Receiver Technology for training.

As part of a previous public records response, the Kern County Sheriff also released Digital Receiver Technology’s General Terms and Conditions of Sale, revised May 9, 2006.

Los Angeles Police Department Has a DRTbox and a StingRay

 Cell site simulator  No Responses »
Apr 092015
 

In a March 19, 2015, response to my public records request, the Los Angeles Police Department responded, “To the extent that any such records may exist…they would constitute official information.” The letter goes on to state that all requested documents are exempt under California Government Code section 6254(k) and section 6255 without indicating whether such records exist.

However, a little research shows that on August 2, 2005, the Los Angeles City Council approved the purchase of a cell phone tracking system from Digital Receiver Technology for an amount not to exceed $260,000. Background material for the agenda item stated, “Most vendors only offered a product that could track phones issued by one or two cellular service providers. Conversely, DRT’s equipment can track and monitor all cellular phone traffic, making it the most advanced product on the market.” Digital Receiver Technology was purchased by Boeing in December 2008.

On April 29, 2010, the Chief of Police wrote a memo to the Police Board of Commissioners to approve a donation of $347,050 from the Los Angeles Police Foundation for a Harris StingRay II system, three high-power Harpoon amplifiers, a laptop, an Amberjack antenna and training. On July 6, 2010, the Los Angeles City Council formally accepted the donation.

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