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New Cellphone Surveillance Safeguards Imposed On Federal Law Enforcement
Earthquake Retrofit writes: The NPR website has an interesting story that the Justice Department says it will beef up legal requirements for using cell-site simulators. It includes a rare picture of the device and refers to them as dirt boxes. From the story: "Under the new policy, federal investigators will be required to get a warrant from a judge demonstrating probable cause, in most domestic criminal probes. Agents will need to explain to judges how the technology is being used. And they'll be directed to destroy volumes of bystanders' data 'no less than once daily.' 'This policy is really designed to ... try to promote transparency, consistency and accountability, all while being mindful of the public's privacy interest,' said Deputy U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates."
In this case, the word is "most"...
So, who wants to bet that in future the overwhelming majority of uses will, purely coincidentally, not fall into the area covered by "most"?
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
I bet this little dance does nothing but make it harder to prove your rights were ignored in pursuit of your conviction.
You're looking for quotes? See my journal.
Given that the local Barney Fifes are still allowed to use them (and still lie about using them), makes this decision the equivalent of a thousand angles dancing on the head of a pin.
A source in the police department, in a reaction to this, stated: "Mouhahahahaha". After this our reporter was arrested on obstruction of justice charges. The police officer was laughing so hard while peeing on the constitution some of his urine missed his target. The police chief had the following to say when defending the bravery of his underlings: "Huh? wha? Peeing on the constitution in the line of brave police work should be praised or would you like your children be savaged by strangers! We do it for the children".
These regulations only apply to federal agencies. State and local police, who perform the vast majority of surveillance, are not bound by these rules.
Basically the justice department is reacting in much the same way as private corporations when threatened with a new stricter regulatory regime, they trot out symbolic but ineffective "self regulation" regimes that look good on the surface, but effectively change nothing. It's all a PR game to avoid real regulations that protects the constitutional rights of citizens.
How did we get from "the Constitution enumerates the powers of the federal government" to "we do whatever we want, unless and until we decide to invent our own rule telling ourselves not to" ?