SAN BERNADINO, CALIFORNIA — Last week a Federal appeals court ruled that the NSA’s warrantless mass collection of Americans’ phone data is unconstitutional, but state and local police forces nationwide have been doing the same thing for years using a device called Stingray.

Stingray is a cell-site simulator, specifically one made by Harris Corporation. It works by spoofing mobile phone towers, tricking individual handsets into connecting to the Stingray instead. The device can record any and all data from all phones within a half mile for police to use in prosecutions.

Usage of Stingrays has been a closely guarded secret. In San Bernadino, California, police used the devices 303 times in just over a year, all without a warrant. The FBI even requires local police to sign a nondisclosure agreement, in which police agree to drop cases if Stingray details might be revealed to the public.

This requirement is enforced by federal agents. When police in Sarasota, Florida, prepared to turn over Stingray records to the ACLU in 2014, U.S. Marshals raided the police department to take the records first.

Ordinarily, wiretaps require a warrant signed by a judge, but no such standard is applied to data gathered by Stingrays.

Judges are often told data from Stingrays originated with “confidential informants,” meaning there is no oversight or guarantee against 4th Amendment violations by police using these powerful devices.

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