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Judge Sides With Baltimore Police on Cellphone Surveillance

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BALTIMORE (AP) - A federal judge is siding with Baltimore police in a civil lawsuit over the use of a clandestine cellphone-surveillance device.

The Daily Record reports that U.S. District Judge Catherine Blake ruled Wednesday that an order obtained by police met the requirement for a warrant.

Blake reached the opposite conclusion of the Court of Special Appeals. The state appellate court ruled police violated Kerron Andrews' Fourth Amendment right when they used a cell site simulator to track and arrest him in 2014.

Blake says she found the order obtained by police contained a probable cause finding and authorized the use of a trace order and a real-time tracking tool.  She says her ruling shouldn't "be mistaken for approval," noting that "a more candid approach to the court would have been preferable."

Don Rush is the News Director and Senior Producer of News and Public Affairs at Delmarva Public Media. An award-winning journalist, Don reports major local issues of the day, from sea level rise, to urban development, to the changing demographics of Delmarva.