So how much backlash was there over this?
Good news.
What if it is the feds who do the tracking, and they lay information to the police? The police can say they followed the law, because *they* didn’t track. In this case, however, the state legislature thought it through.
Lawmakers in Kansas, Missouri, New Hampshire and elsewhere are considering bills specifically addressing this kind of data sharing. Others, like Illinois and Minnesota, have legislation to ban the state from “obtaining” cell phone location data without a warrant.
Pending legislation in Arizona specifically bans the use of warrantless data in state courts. A Reuters report last year revealed that the NSA shares data with state and local law enforcement through a secret outfit called the Special Operation Division (SOD). The federal government also shares data mined by its agencies, including the NSA, FBI, Secret Service, etc., through the 72 DHS “fusion centers”.
Reports in the Washington Post and USA Today last fall documented how “the FBI and most other investigative bodies in the federal government” are regularly using a mobile device known as a “stingray” to intercept and collect electronic data without a warrant. Local and state police have access through sharing agreements.