BUFFALO, N.Y. --- It’s taxpayer-funded equipment, but there's a debate on whether you should know how it's being used, how often and who's authorizing it in the Erie County Sheriff's Office.
The device in question is known as a Stingray. It’s something the New York Civil Liberties Union called a "highly invasive piece of technology" used by the Erie County Sheriff's Office to capture data from nearby cell phones.
"What we want to know is what privacy protections, if any; the sheriff's department has put in place for the use of this device," Mariko Hirose, an attorney representing the New York Civil Liberties Union.
Attorney Andrea Schillaci, representing the Erie County Sheriff’s Office, said disclosing that information could compromise certain investigations.
"The equipment that's in use, as stated earlier, in use on a local, national and international level so to the extent that it's effective in those arenas, there is a value in limiting the information available about it to the general public."
Purchased in 2008, the Stingray cost the Sheriff's Office $350,000, and it's for that reason the NYCLU petitioned a judge Thursday to release data they said Sheriff Tim Howard deliberately withheld.
"You denied all eight requests and you gave eight reasons that may be applicable to 1, 2, 3, 4 or all 8 of their demands," said Hon. Patrick NeMoyer, Supreme Court Justice.
Hirose said releasing that type of information was unlikely to change much.
"It's not going to affect anybody who's trying to evade detection," said Hirose.
"We believe that the exemptions apply. It's up to the court to make that determination," said Schillaci.
Judge NeMoyer expects to have a written decision on the matter in the coming days.