NYPD seeks to grab cell phone IDs from people under arrest or in custody; push for IMEI numbers raises concerns

A little-known but aggressive NYPD campaign to collect the digital fingerprints of cellphones from people in custody has raised concerns among civil liberties experts.

Each cellphone has a unique 15-digit identification number known as its International Mobile Equipment Identity, or IMEI.

When the phone’s user unlocks the device, it’s a simple matter to find its IMEI number via a phone’s setting app, or just by dialing *#06# on its keypad.

Phone companies use the numbers to track misplaced, lost or stolen cell phones. But in the hands of law enforcement, IMEI numbers can become a powerful tool in criminal investigations.

IMEI numbers can give police the ability to determine the location of a phone, and track communications to it and from it, said Daniel Schwarz, a privacy and technology expert with the New York Civil Liberties Union.

Schwarz said he hasn’t previously come across the practice of collecting IMEI numbers, except by federal intelligence agencies, such as the National Security Agency.

Under Mayor Adams’ administration, police brass are pressing officers in commands across the city to convince arrestees to give them access to their cell phones so they can record their IMEI numbers, internal NYPD messages obtained by the Daily News show.

“Every person in custody must have their IMEIs for all devices in their possession recorded by their arresting officer,” according to instructions sent to cops in one command last month and obtained by The News.

“If a prisoner refuses to give the number, state ‘We do not care what contents are stored in the phone.’”

In some cases, police sources said, prisoners are asked repeatedly to make calls or are being tricked or coerced into unlocking their phones.

In the past, people in custody or under arrest were allowed one phone call.

But now cops are under orders to encourage detainees to make multiple calls, partly to get them to unlock the phones so the IMEI number can be recorded.

“Every prisoner is to be asked twice for up to three phone calls by their arresting officer,” a message posted in one command said

Civil liberties groups said stockpiling the IMEI numbers violates detainees’ protections against unreasonable search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

They said it also runs afoul of Riley v. California, a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2014 which held that law enforcement must obtain a search warrant to access data even in the phones of people who have been arrested.

“Clearly, the police are being encouraged to violate people’s rights,” said Jerome Greco, digital forensics supervising attorney for the Legal Aid Society.

“They need a warrant to do this. If someone consents to make a call, it doesn’t mean they are consenting to providing the IMEI number or anything else from the phone.”

Greco said he has heard anecdotal accounts in the past year of officers holding the unlocked phone to the ear of the arrestee during a call and then recording the IMEI number, or telling people their effort to obtain the IMEI number was a “routine” request needed to complete a standard form.

“We’ve had clients say to us that officers were really insistent and kept bothering them to unlock the phone or make a phone call in ways they felt was unusual or made them uncomfortable,” he said.

There are exceptions to the Riley decision, Greco said — but they don’t apply if police are accessing the phone to gather evidence to be used later.

“If you are doing it to gather evidence, you need a warrant or an exigent circumstance like when the police have probable cause that information on the phone could prevent harm to someone in immediate danger,” he said.

In a statement, an NYPD spokesperson said: “The department does not use IMEI numbers for tracking purposes. In limited circumstances, the IMEI number is relevant information which is included in search warrant applications.”

“Individuals who are arrested are allowed to make phone calls, and the numbers to which these calls are made are recorded on standard arrest paperwork,” the statement added. “In no circumstance are these phone numbers used to avoid obtaining a search warrant.”

Despite the NYPD statement that the IMEI numbers are relevant “in limited circumstances,” the internal records seen by The News show police brass are making extensive efforts to push cops to collect the numbers.

When a prisoner refuses to make a call, cops are supposed to notify their precinct commanders, the records show.

“Every prisoner in custody is subject to an inventory search (including) obtaining/itemizing IMEI numbers,” a commander wrote.

Sergeants and lieutenants who do not make sure the numbers are collected can face discipline, the records show.

The documents also make clear the pressure is coming from the top of the NYPD — specifically Chief of Crime Control Strategies Michael LiPetri — and repeated in monthly Compstat meetings where commanders are called on the carpet to explain their crime strategies.

“All, I am encountering some resistance from some supervisors when it comes to obtaining IMEIs from prisoners’ cellphones,” one precinct commander texted to his officers last month.

“Let me be 100% crystal clear — this is a mandate from Chief LiPetri’s office and it must and WILL be done and without making excuses.

“We are being checked and are being held strictly accountable.”

The success of a given command at obtaining the numbers is also being carefully tracked, the records show.

“Our IMEI compliance on vouchers is subpar,” a commander wrote, complaining that his cops didn’t register 18 IMEI numbers on one particular day. “Desk officers you are responsible to ensure these items are obtained. These parameters must improve, I have been talking about this for weeks now.”

Albert Fox Cahn, head of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project at Metropolitan College in Manhattan — “We Watch the Watchers,” its website says — said exercising your right to make a phone call doesn’t mean you waive any other rights in safeguarding your private details in a cell phone.

Fox Cahn said the pressure to obtain the numbers is particularly concerning because it will spur cops to push boundaries in a way that might violate the law — as in the stop and frisk campaign of 2006 through 2011, in which a federal judge found racial bias in the way the police were stopping young black and Hispanic men.

“This is a policy where police officers who respect the Constitution are going to get disciplined and officers who coerce people into unlocking their phones are going to be commended,” he said.

“Every time someone unlocks their phone to make a call, and more info is recorded as a result, that is an illegal search. This is digital stop and frisk.”