UK Police Want Plug-In Computer Crime Detectors

An anonymous reader writes "UK police are talking to private companies about using plug-in USB devices that can scour the hard drive of any device they are attached to, searching for evidence of illegal activity. The UK's Association of Chief Police Officers is considering using commercial devices that can perform targeted searches of text, pictures and computer code on hard drives, allowing untrained cops to detect anything from correspondence on stolen goods to child pornography. Police in the UK are desperate for a way of slashing the backlog of machines seized by the police in raids, with many forces having a backlog that will take a year to process." Maybe they shouldn't seize so many computers.

Comments

the headline ten years from now...

[astra05]

I can just imagine the headline /. or whatever news website ten years from now: UK Govt bans Human Reproduction. Now all future UK citizens will produced in laboratories by private companies with Government oversight. This is due to the fact that UK Government can remove all Genes that will allow the human nature to want to see child pornography. Also in future citizen models they eliminate all crime and the ability to make free choice decisions. A UK Govt official was quoted saying "Now everyone in UK is safe because it is impossible to commit a crime." *cough brave new world* I say all of this because it seems like the UK is leading Western Society in destroying its citizens privacy and civil rights. Oh well, at least here in the states we have the constitution to provide to certain "inalienable" rights. Oh wait, The US Govt ignores the Constitution? /end_rant

Re:Should be easy in the UK.

[smellsofbikes]

That'd work great if it were the door that gave out, but it was solid and 5 cm thick. The doorframe, however, was only made of 2x6 material, which doesn't stand up to repeated kicks. (Most doorframes are merely 1x4 or 1x6 material, by the way.) Now that particular door has a 3mm thick strike plate the size of a textbook, with multiple lag bolts going through both door headers. Which means next time they'll just bash out a window and go through that instead.
Which is why I moved out of that house.