Federal law enforcement agencies of America: prepare to get your Stingray house in order. The DOJ has just issued its official guidance for Stingray use and it‘s full of stipulations that won‘t make the FBI, DEA or any other participant in a federal investigation very happy.

The seven-page document opens by reminding readers that Stingrays are used for Very Important Work (fugitive apprehension, recovery of kidnapped children, narcotics investigations, etc.). And certainly this is true. But they‘re also used to hunt down people suspected of misdemeanor theft and used regularly in other non-critical law enforcement work.