Information obtained via right-to-know request revealed The New Jersey State Police spent at least $850,000 on stingray devices from Harris Corp.
Authorities didn't respond to NBC10's request to discuss the use of the technology described in more than 100 pages of invoices and other heavily redacted documents detailing the devices purchased. Jeanne LoCicero, deputy legal director ACLU of New Jersey, asked for the same documents that NBC10 sought and received the same response from the department upon further inquiry.
"The response to our OPRA request is really disappointing because it shed virtually no information on how Stingray technology is being used and New Jerseyans deserve to know," LoCicero said. "This is really invasive and sweeping search tools that were developed for the military and now they're being used in New Jersey and public needs to know more."
New Jersey State Police department's lack of transparency on the device is not uncommon from what has been seen with other law enforcement agencies at both the local and federal level when similar requests have been made.
