The NYPD has no written policy for the use of cell-site simulators, but according to the FOIL response, they were typically accompanied by a low-level court order rather than a warrant, a practice that is common in police departments throughout the country but has drawn criticism from a number of civil liberties groups. In September, the Justice Department publicly broke with this practice, requiring that all federal law enforcement agencies acquire a search warrant before deploying a cell-site simulator.

Although such devices have been in use for more than a decade, their use was largely unknown until 2011, when a prisoner named Daniel Rigmaiden revealed their use as part of his appeal. In the years since, the devices have been discovered in nearly every corner of law enforcement, including a secret US Marshals program that deployed the devices in airborne planes to locate fugitives while flying over a city.