Cell-NO!
Another spooky WFAM - Waste of the Week

Quick WFAM Project Updates
- Our database is at 353 WFAM examples
- 📈 +96 WFAM examples since last post
- Current WFAM Total: ~$25.4mil
- 📈 +$2mil since last post
Cell-NO (or cell phone extraction tools)
Today, we're calling out spending opioid settlement money on Cellebrite and other mobile device forensic extraction tools (MDFTs):
Mobile device forensic extraction tools (+$389k)
- Vendors: Cellebrite, GrayShift, Magnet Forensics, and Nighthawk
- Where: West Virginia, New York, Minnesota, Connecticut, Colorado*
- Initial Spending: Device + subscription, training
- Long-term Costs: Maintenance, replacements, training, upgrades, subscription fees
- Considerations:
- As always, the purchasing process may have issues: Was there an open bidding process for these devices? How was the specific model evaluated for the stated purpose? What contact was there between the company and the government? These questions could generate other concerns and are worth investigating.
- The decision-making process might have issues: Was the public notified about this purchase? Who was consulted before the purchase? Who approved the purchase?
- The stated outcomes might have issues: What are the metrics that law enforcement provided to decision makers to evaluate whether this spending is a “success?” Is there data or research showing that MDFTs reduce overdose deaths or improve access to treatment? If not, why would opioid settlement money go towards MDFTs?
- The implementation might have issues: How are the MDFTs going to be used? Will they respect privacy and civil liberties, or disproportionately target marginalized communities? What safeguards are in place?
- The legacy of these decisions might have a long tail: How were ongoing costs, including litigation risks, factored into the decision-making process?
Good Spending Alternatives:
- Integrated care: Support programs that combine addiction treatment with primary care, mental health, and pain management, particularly in rural regions where behavioral health specialists are scarce. Integrated care models have been shown to improve treatment retention and reduce overdose deaths. Funds can be used to start new clinics, expand existing clinics, and deploy mobile units that provide harm reduction and treatment services to underserved populations.
- Housing: Invest in recovery housing and supportive housing for people leaving treatment or incarceration. Stable, supportive housing for people with substance use disorders decreases emergency department visits and recidivism, and the National Academies identifies housing as a critical factor for sustained recovery. Recovery housing must allow for medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD).
From our standpoint, no surveillance tool like MDFTs can address a community's need for addiction prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery supports. Therefore, anytime we see spending like this, it's going to end up on our database as WASTE.
Background
What is a mobile device forensic extraction tool?
If you’re new to this technology: MDFTs enable law enforcement to crack into phones and pull almost everything off the device for analysis, including but not limited to: texts, photos, app data, and location history. This helps them build a detailed report of someone’s digital life while bypassing built-in phone security features. When law enforcement asks for opioid settlement money for these tools, the stated goal is to use MDFTs on the phones of people that overdosed. That's creepy.
They are becoming more popular among law enforcement, even though the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) warns these tools are “powerful and invasive” and usually deployed with little oversight.
Sounds like limited oversight isn’t just a problem with using these tools but extends to buying them…

Why OPI is Freaked Out by MDTFs
- There is no proof this tech saves lives. There’s zero credible evidence that Cellebrite reduces opioid overdoses or expands treatment.
- There are big privacy risks. EFF warns these tools expose data on the entire phone, with minimal oversight or often without warrants.
- Widespread, quiet adoption. Over 2,000 agencies already use MDTFs with minimal transparency (Upturn - Mass Extraction)
- Defense Lawyers are alarmed. The Legal Aid NYC Digital Forensics Unit fights daily against overbroad searches and unreliable phone evidence that violate defendants (and your) rights.
*An interesting twist in spending on MDFTs in Colorado
The equipment used by Boulder City was supported both at the level of our Regional Strategies and the State’s allowable spending categories, in 2023-24. Both our strategic priorities and the allowable expenditures from the State have changed since then. So, you will not see those awards reflected from 2025-onward.
Said differently, it looks like opioid settlement spending on MDFTs is out in Colorado!
This speaks to the power of having people audit these decisions, working with experts (including impacted community members!), and updating guidance so that spending continues to meet the aims of this money.
The Last Word…
We love spooky szn at OPI! But, haunting and harassing people with settlement money meant for healing our hurting communities? That’s a horror story we want to avoid.
Let’s keep opioid settlement dollars where they belong: saving lives, not spying on them.

And a hearty laugh to close out the week…
Why don’t mummies take time off?
They’re afraid to unwind! 🧻
Have an amazing rest of your week!
With all our examples, we're just scratching the surface of how much money was wasted on this specific issue. We'll update this page periodically to reflect new data.
Have you seen this spending in your community?
Report it to our database!
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Opioid Policy Institute by Jonathan JK Stoltman, PhD is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0