Since 1954
One sheriff who leads an anti-smuggling task force says the software helps “develop leads to eventually obtain probable cause.” Civil liberties experts say its use violates constitutional rights.
Derek Maltz formerly worked at PenLink, a Nebraska-based tech firm that has sold software that can track phone locations without a warrant to agencies like ICE and Texas DPS.
DPS plans to spend millions in taxpayer dollars on a controversial software, used first as part of Governor Abbott’s border crackdown, to “disrupt potential domestic terrorism.”
“The border is like a free-for-all, this frontier zone that is a perfect laboratory for tech experimentation.”
A recently leaked memo recalls a sordid history of inappropriate surveillance, but it also identifies a concerning overlap between neo-fascists and hardline religious groups.