Pen registers and trap-and-trace devices
Cell site and carrier
This page is public-interest research. An argument grade is not a court finding. A watchdog page describes the device. It is not proof a Nevada agency bought it or turned a feature on. A product description is not a Nevada practice. Agencies are not merged: the City of Las Vegas Department of Public Safety, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, the Clark County School District, the City of Reno, and the Nevada Department of Public Safety stay separate. A hotlist hit is not a confirmed crime. Legal review of this page is unverified.
What it does
A pen register records numbers dialed from a line. A trap-and-trace records numbers that call that line. The classic device does not record the conversation. Police have also used pen-register orders in litigation about cell-site simulators. A simulator is not a pen register unless a record says the order was used that way.
Privacy watchdog concerns
No watchdog page is attached.
Constitutional issues
Unresolved question
Fourth Amendment, Nevada Constitution art. 1, § 18
Warrant practice not established for a Nevada agency
Pen registers and trap-and-trace devices: Federal statute 18 U.S.C. §§ 3121–3127 is the provision to read. Smith is counterauthority on its facts. No Nevada pen-register log is in this build, so no violation is claimed.
- Smith v. Maryland, 442 U.S. 735 (1979). Counterauthority. United States Supreme Court. Smith held that a pen register recording numbers dialed was not a search on those facts.
- Carpenter v. United States, 585 U.S. 296 (2018). Does not decide this technology. United States Supreme Court. Carpenter did not decide a traditional pen register for numbers dialed.
Statutes attached to read, not findings.
- NRS Chapter 239. Nevada public-records law is the route to ask for contracts, policies, and logs. Citing it is not a finding that a surveillance practice is unlawful.
- Nevada Constitution art. 1, § 18. State search-and-seizure provision. This page does not quote the section. No section anchor was verified. It is listed only where a search question is actually implicated.
- 42 U.S.C. § 1983. A civil remedy for a deprivation of federal rights under color of state law. It is not a warrant statute, and it does not itself make a surveillance practice unlawful.
- 18 U.S.C. §§ 3121–3127. Pen-register and trap-and-trace provisions. Attached only to that technique, as the statute to read. Not a finding of a violation.
Nevada use
Not documented on this page.
Statute identified. Nevada use is not documented.
See also: Stingray cell-site simulators; Call-detail record analysis
Next record
Pen registers and trap-and-trace devices: Do not treat a cell-site simulator as a pen register without a record that says so.
All devices. A document workflow for this page is not built. The arrest correction form is not a surveillance-document inbox. Corrections and source documents for this page follow the corrections policy. Corrections policy.