BART’s cellular shutdown: Safety or suppression?

Michael Risher, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Northern California, said he’s never heard of a government agency taking such an action. “Not in this country,” Risher said. “This is the kind of thing we hear about happening in oppressive regimes.”
Fairow called such comparisons “unfortunate,” but agreed that he’d never heard of another agency shutting down signals.
Risher also pointed out that “jamming” cell phones, which is technologically different than shutting down a signal, was recently dismissed by the Federal Communications Commission as a law enforcement tool. Prisons and jails have sought permission of the FCC to jam the signal around lockups to prevent inmates from communicating via smuggled cell phones. One of the reasons for the FCC’s continued opposition to jamming, Risher says, is that shutting down cell signals can interfere with safety.
http://informant.kalwnews.org/2011/08/barts-cellular-shutdown-safety-or-suppression/