Cellular Jamming Bill Requires No PS Notification

A U.S. Senate committee has approved a bill that would allow prison officials to apply for waivers to FCC rules that prohibit jamming of radio communications, allowing them to render smuggled cellular phones inoperative inside their facilities. However, the Safe Prisons Communications Act of 2009 provides no notification of the waiver request to public safety agencies so they might object. The bill does say the FCC, “shall consider, among other factors, whether the grant of the waiver would interfere with 19 emergency or public safety communications.” Prison officials across the country say prisoners are using thousands of smuggled cellular phones to communicate among themselves, raising safety issues within the facilities. Prisoners are also using the phones to continue their criminal enterprises on the outside. The jamming authority would be the first allowable under FCC rules–although it’s believed the Secret Service and the military also perform such electronic activity in the U.S. The bill now goes to the full Senate, and a companion bill is being considered by the House. Download (pdf) the bill as approved by the committee here.