A Bluetooth identifier seems trivial, but it could reveal a lot of information about where cops are and what they’re up to, like when their body cams are recording or they turn on the sirens to respond to a call.
“There's the signal that is sent when a police officer basically thinks something's recording worthy, if that's the case, people can document that, detect that and there won't be any question whether or not hey, there's a body cam or there wasn't body cam,” Meekins told Engadget. It’s a way to potentially determine whether certain evidence exists so that it can be produced more quickly in a records request — something police often "slow walk" Meekins said.
It's similar to radio waves: if you have the equipment to get past the music and news stations into the bands used by emergency response personnel that can specifically identify our devices, and removing the need for including serial numbers in Bluetooth broadcasts to reduce the ability to track a specific device over time."
No features in RFParty are designed specifically to track police, it’s a general Bluetooth scanning service, similar to existing services like. But some of what's displayed on its maps includes common Internet of Things devices used by police, including body cams. Anecdotally, “We have all this technology that there's certain people who understand it, and can exploit it. But you know, most people can't and I think there needs to be more knowledge given out,” Hicks told Engadget. InAugust, Meekins showed what the Axon OUI is and privately provided a live demo to me of how a knowledgeable RFParty user could leverage that information.
Of course, having that historical data handy for accountability purposes requires people to be running RFParty in the vicinity of potential abuses of police power, and it's unlikely the app will become popular on a scale where that data will be available for almost any such incident. Still, when cops have the power to use technology against nearly anyone, it's interesting to see the tables turned.
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