U.S. Police Departments Turn to Israeli-Founded Cognyte Surveillance Systems

Since 2023, dozens of local and state police agencies have purchased Cognyte Solutions’ real-time cell-site simulator (CSS) hardware for monitoring smartphones. Contracts include the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Albuquerque Police Department, and, as of early 2026, the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, D.C., the New York Police Department, and the Texas State Police. The Texas agency says the equipment is used only for search-and-rescue missions. The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports that Cognyte’s software is deployed in over 80 U.S. police departments nationwide.

This Creepy Israeli Spy Tech Is Likely Operating In Your City

Cognyte originated as the security division of Verint Technologies and was spun off in December 2019. Its CSS devices—radio-frequency transmitters that mimic cell towers—have been linked to surveillance abuses abroad. Documents from a Burmese human-rights group show a sale of Cognyte’s “FalcoNet” software to Myanmar’s military before the 2021 coup, a transaction later cited in a U.S. State Department report describing systematic monitoring that facilitated extrajudicial killings and torture. Earlier investigations also tied Verint’s predecessor technology to authoritarian regimes in Azerbaijan, Indonesia, South Sudan, Bahrain, and Colombia.

This Creepy Israeli Spy Tech Is Likely Operating In Your City

The Texas State Police told Responsible Statecraft the technology is employed solely for search-and-rescue operations. Cognyte Solutions declined to comment on the contracts. No response was obtained from the Washington, D.C., or New York agencies.

This Creepy Israeli Spy Tech Is Likely Operating In Your City

“There are many problems in the United States…however, we have something more of a system, at least on paper, for regulating the police and intelligence agencies. These technologies are being produced in a context that is fundamentally different from ours,” — Chip Gibbons, civil liberties expert

This Creepy Israeli Spy Tech Is Likely Operating In Your City