The police in the USA use stingrays to illegally snoop on suspects, recording calls and precisely locating them. The problem is, they can’t use it as evidence. So they then pretend to have received their intel from more legitimate sources, often other law enforcement agencies.
First described in government documents obtained by Reuters in 2013, parallel construction is when law enforcement originally obtains evidence through a secret surveillance program, then tries to seek it out again, via normal procedure. In essence, law enforcement creates a parallel, alternative story for how it found information. That way, it can hide surveillance techniques from public scrutiny and would-be criminals.
However, if a clever defence lawyer can deduce this is happening, they have a lot of bargaining power.
IN 2013, 18-YEAR-OLD Tadrae McKenzie robbed a marijuana dealer for $130 worth of pot at a Taco Bell in Tallahassee, Florida. He and two friends had used BB guns to carry out the crime, which under Florida law constitutes robbery with a deadly weapon. McKenzie braced himself to serve the minimum four years in prison.
But in the end, a state judge offered McKenzie a startlingly lenient plea deal: He was ordered to serve only six months’ probation, after pleading guilty to a second-degree misdemeanor.
Story: Wired
