Basically when you lose anything that had sensor capabilities for ANY reason, you still retain those sensor capabilities. Take a scout with huge sensors, zip it to the enemy's space, decomission it. POOF, instant permanent monitor of their area, with nothing they can do to get rid of it. Even if they destroy it instead of you decomissioning it, the only difference is you don't get the BC for decom, you still get the permanent sensors.
This will also happen if you have a starbase that gets destroyed/decom or a planet that gets taken by the enemy. It's a little cheesy and there is literally *nothing* you can do to keep from 'abusing' this. I'm a little surprised that no one else is posting it, is this something that I've somehow managed to get and isn't happening to everyone? So far I've just played the campaign and it happens to me on every map I've played.