Until the month of June, Vanderburgh County Sheriff Noah Robinson had not acknowledged the degree of disorder that signal jammers could introduce into law enforcement operations.
At that point, his office came across one positioned in the rear section of a car.
In a presentation to an interim legislative committee last week, Robinson indicated that the office had received a notification about a burglary in progress. The staff leveraged the camera systems within the subdivision to locate a vehicle associated with the alleged perpetrators.
Robinson reported that the officer’s radio and computer failed to operate when the vehicle was pulled over.
Signal jammers can effectively obstruct various forms of communication, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS, thereby affecting devices such as phones, Ring doorbells, and wireless alarm systems. Robinson mentioned that the wifi jammer his office uncovered has a range of one mile.
He engaged with an interim panel that specializes in the criminal code, calling upon the lawmaker-led entity to consider the formulation of a new law that would make the importation and various uses of the devices illegal.
Robinson remarked that it is not essential to pursue this matter extensively to realize that it possesses other functions, particularly regarding terrorism.
He illustrated various situations where malicious actors could potentially disrupt medical devices in hospitals, hinder police communications through surveillance towers, access the mobile phones of everyday individuals via cellular networks, and manipulate traffic flow controlled by wireless traffic signals.
Under federal regulations, signal jammers are unlawful. The Federal Communications Commission prohibits the marketing, sale, or operation of any device that interferes with authorized radio communications.
Representative Matt Pierce, affiliated with the Democratic Party and hailing from Bloomington, indicated that correctional institutions cannot resort to signal jammers to eliminate their problems with contraband telephones.
Senator Lonnie Randolph, from East Chicago, posed a question regarding the reasons Indiana lawmakers should evaluate potential changes in light of the federal prohibition on these devices.
It was noted by Robinson that Indiana officers are not endowed with “immediate” law enforcement authority due to the absence of a relevant state statute.
Representative Wendy McNamara, who oversees the interim panel and the House’s Courts and Criminal Code committee, conveyed her opinion that Robinson’s office was fortunate, emphasizing that the situation “could have been much worse.”
Yet, she noted that the legislative action regarding the technology might not take place without delay.
Addressing the media, McNamara remarked that, truthfully, we lack a structured method for dealing with signal jammers at present.
