FBI used geofence warrant in Seattle after BLM protest attack, new documents show

Federal investigators served Google with a geofence warrant as a part of an investigation into an tried arson towards a police union headquarters in Seattle throughout protests of the taking pictures of Jacob Blake, as proven by paperwork unsealed in the present day in federal court docket.

The tried arson came about on August twenty fourth, 2020, at some point after cops shot Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, leaving him paralyzed. Amidst broader protests in Seattle and throughout the nation, two individuals threw Molotov cocktails on the rear entrance of the headquarters of the Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG).

Whereas the constructing sustained little injury, the assault spurred widespread nationwide curiosity: Seattle police initially posted a $1,000 reward for data, and the FBI later supplied as much as $20,000 for any suggestions that will assist establish the individuals concerned.

However paperwork unsealed on February third present that, earlier than providing the reward for data, the FBI additionally used a controversial search method generally known as a geofence warrant to request data from Google about all Android gadgets that had handed via the world earlier than and after the assault.

“On August 24, 2020, at roughly 11:00 p.m., two unknown suspects deliberately broken the SPOG constructing utilizing what I imagine to be improvised incendiary gadgets,” an FBI agent advised the court docket within the affidavit. “Based mostly on the foregoing, I submit that there’s possible trigger to look data that’s presently within the possession of Google and that pertains to the gadgets that reported being inside the Goal Location.”

The warrant is addressed to Google and requests “Location Historical past information, sourced from data together with GPS information and details about seen wi-fi factors and Bluetooth beacons transmitted from gadgets to Google, reflecting gadgets that Google calculated had been or may have been … situated inside the geographical area bounded by the latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates, dates, and occasions under.”

Geographical coordinates supplied with the warrant cowl an space of a block that comprises the police guild constructing and numerous different companies and in addition contains all 4 road intersections on the fringe of the block. The timeframe of the warrant begins at 10PM PT and extends until 11:15PM.

The character of such a warrant implies that any Android consumer passing via the world throughout that hour would have their data disclosed to the FBI by Google.

Usually, when geofence warrants are issued, Google returns an anonymized checklist of gadgets that had been current within the outlined space over the given time interval. If any of those gadgets appear to belong to suspects within the case, investigators might ask Google to launch extra data.

Court docket information present Google complied with the warrant, because it was returned as executed the next day. Nevertheless, the truth that a public enchantment for data was made by the FBI months after the warrant was granted means that any data supplied by Google didn’t assist with the investigation.

A press request despatched to the FBI’s Seattle discipline workplace had not obtained a response by time of publication, and a spokesperson for the Seattle Police Division stated she was not instantly capable of touch upon technical particulars of the investigation.

Whereas some cities noticed important property injury within the wake of the Jacob Blake protests, all proof reveals the assault towards the Seattle union constructing was ineffective and notable principally as an affront to native police. Surveillance footage launched by police reveals two individuals operating into the car parking zone of the SPOG constructing and launching the flaming projectiles on the constructing. The video seems to point out one of many Molotov cocktails extinguishing quickly after being thrown whereas one other bursts above an out of doors stairwell.

Using geofence warrants has grown quickly throughout the US lately, with information launched by Google displaying a dramatic spike from 2018 to 2020. In keeping with Google’s transparency report, the corporate obtained 11,554 of those warrants in 2020 in comparison with solely 982 in 2018.

It’s not the primary time authorities have used geofence warrants in response to a Black Lives Matter (BLM) protest. Individually to the Seattle case described above, six separate warrants had been issued in Kenosha, Wisconsin to gather data on gadgets in proximity to protest areas after the taking pictures of Jacob Blake.