Hanni Fahoury writes: Jason Weinstein, a deputy assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice’s criminal division, told a panel at the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee’s “State of the Mobile Net” conference yesterday that requiring a search warrant to obtain location tracking information from cell phones would “cripple” prosecutors and law enforcement officials. We…
Category: U.S.
Justice Department sought more than 1,700 secret warrants in 2011
Associated Press reports: The Justice Department made 1,745 requests to a secret court for authority to wiretap or search for evidence in terrorism and espionage investigations last year. That’s according to an April 30 letter from the department to the Senate that was first reported Thursday by the Federation of American Scientists. Read more on…
Md. high court bans DNA swabs of charged suspects; police, prosecutors seek appeal
Matt Zapotosky reports: Maryland’s top law enforcement officials are pushing back against a recent Court of Appeals decision that prohibits DNA collection from suspects charged — but not yet convicted — of violent crimes, saying the ruling will allow dangerous criminals to go undetected by authorities. Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) and police chiefs and prosecutors from the…
Commentary: Maybe we really do need surveillance – “for the children”
I’m probably one of the last people you’d ever expect to raise the “it’s for the children” argument for surveillance in schools, right? But there’s a story out of New Jersey that’s all too familiar to me in my “irl” identity and work: disabled students are abused in school and because of their disabilities, cannot…