CEO of CellAntenna Corporation, Howard Melamed, announced today at the CTIA exhibition in New Orleans that cell phone jamming needs to be legalized for state and local law enforcement to prevent criminals from using cell phones for illegal purposes.

According to public data from the FCC (http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/jammer-enforcement), there were only 20 incidences of illegal cell phone jamming enforced under the provisions of the 1934 Communications Act, which allows legal jamming only by the federal government. None of the FCC citations issued were against any law enforcement agency. CellAntenna contends that with so few occurrences, jamming appears to be a non-issue or the FCC would take a harsher stance on prosecution.

CellAntenna has urged Congress to introduce legislation that would allow limited use of cell phone jamming equipment by local and state law enforcement and more stringent penalties to members of the public caught illegally acquiring the equipment and using it. Jamming equipment is able to prevent the use of cell phones by criminals when police activities are ongoing, such as SWAT team operations, inside jails and prisons, and for local and state bomb disposal units.

“The need for cell phone jamming equipment by law enforcement greatly outweighs any threat of public misuse,” stated Melamed. “Only 20 incidents of jamming were found and prosecuted? With so few actual citations issued by the FCC for public misuse, there is no reason for the cell phone industry to be afraid of any misuse by local and state law enforcement agencies.”

CellAntenna Corporation has successfully implemented safe and controlled jamming solutions domestically and internationally, including at Cumberland Prison in Maryland as part of a federally sanctioned test by the NTIA.

About CellAntenna

CellAntenna Corporation and affiliate CA WIRELESS provide cell phone signal enhancement in buildings and cell phone control solutions for law enforcement. CellAntenna signal booster integration has customers worldwide and specializes in distributed antenna systems. CJAM Cell phone jamming, detection and managed access solutions are used by prisons and other security-sensitive customers. More information available at: http://cellantenna.com.