Police have a disconnect

 

 

After Edward Snowden let the world see the inner workings of government security efforts in the post-9/11 world, technology companies took a big public relations beating for their compliance in the invasion of every single part of our lives—including the most intimate parts.

After public backlash, two of the worst offenders, Apple and Google, are now going head-to-head against security and law enforcement tyrants over making some changes to actually help us provide the privacy that people not only expect, but are guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment.

It was announced recently that in their new operating systems for mobile devices, Apple and Google would encrypt data by default. Encryption is encoding information on your phone—call records, location data, texts, pictures, etc.—so that unwanted parties will not have access to it. Only a key can unlock the encryption, and you, the owner of the mobile device, hold the encryption key.

Phones already have this as an option for their users, but law enforcement is throwing a fit over plans where it will now be a standard feature. This means that police will not be able to just access data on your phone and download whatever information they want. They say this will help criminals keep secrets and restrict investigations for law enforcement. The fact that law enforcement will have to do some good old-fashioned police work should not be grounds for them to complain.

If the only reason a cop has an investigation is because of a cell phone, they probably have something better to do with their time.

The NSA will still sweep up data en masse from every electronic platform, and law enforcement will still be able to get a warrant, provided they have probable cause, to search online records or request information from online companies.

But this is beside the point. The message law enforcement is sending in this encryption fight is that they clearly have a disconnect from the people they have sworn to protect and serve. Police have so thoroughly drank the “threat is imminent” Kool-Aid from the highest levels of government that they now believe that all people are guilty of something.

Law enforcement has begun to treat the common people in this country like the enemy, despite a huge fall in crime.

Since the time most of us at UK were born, crime has been falling steadily in the U.S. This is one of the safest places in the world to live, but it seems that police still do not trust citizens.

This culture is the same one behind the shootings of young men, of which police are not held accountable. Presumed guilt from the beginning of investigations has become the process for many police, and it has a direct effect on the freedom for each of us. It’s about time we the people didn’t feel like law enforcement was the enemy.

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