SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Top FBI officials informed congressional lawmakers this week that they have been unable to access the smartphone of the suspected gunman in the Dayton, Ohio, mass shooting, two sources told The Hill.
In a briefing about the weekend shootings in Dayton and El Paso, Texas, FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich told House Democrats that the agency is in possession of what’s believed to be Connor Betts’s primary phone but can’t open it because it requires a passcode, according to the two sources who took part in Wednesday's briefing.
[...] During the conference call with lawmakers, Bowdich said the FBI “can’t unlock” the device. If Betts was using a six- to eight-digit PIN, it could be months or even years before the FBI can crack the password, Bowdich said.
“We don’t know when we are going to get into the phone,” he told lawmakers, according to a source on the call, one of several FBI briefings this week involving members of Congress from both parties.
The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
[...] After a 2015 mass shooting left 14 people dead in San Bernardino, Calif., the FBI mounted a public campaign to pressure Apple into creating software that would give law enforcement access to one of the shooter’s phones. The Department of Justice asked a federal court in California to compel the iPhone maker into building a backdoor into the device.
Before the court could rule on the DOJ’s motion, the FBI announced it had managed to gain access into the phone with the help of an outside contractor, heading off what might have been a landmark battle with Silicon Valley over civil liberties.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 11 2019, @04:13AM (5 children)
Should notebooks and other paper things be unburnable so they law officers can read them later? Is that what they imply? What about mincing? Untearable paper too? Because it seems to always be about "backdoors".
Tought luck. They are not paid to have an easy job, sometimes they have to go with less clues than originally avaliable, not even a frontdoor because there is only rubble.
Oh! Also... maybe law officiers should learn to capture people alive instead of always going for maximum force, if they want to interrogate someone. They can have some training in Europe (paid holidays abroad...), it seems they manage to do it now and then, instead of always shooting to centre of mass until out of ammo.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 11 2019, @04:26AM (1 child)
But the Supreme Court has allowed it, and what fun is carrying a gun if you can't legally pump someone full of lead?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 11 2019, @04:54AM
They do call it a manhunt after all.
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 11 2019, @07:50AM (2 children)
If someone is armed and is shooting at you or other people, you
wantneed to ensure they cannot continue firing. That is why you're supposed to shoot to kill.Protecting yourself and others is the paramount concern in these situations. Also, gunmen do not stand still waiting to get shot. They are usually moving and firing, and so are the people trying to stop them. Being a perfect marksman that can stop a gunman without killing him is not realistic.
In Europe they rarely have to deal with armed gunmen. When they do they use the same approach as the US: shoot to kill.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 11 2019, @03:20PM
And most of you still won't learn and don't care.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 11 2019, @11:58PM
No, in Europe they negotiate first, even when shoot. They are not happy killing people just because the other side shoot first, or just looks mad (or black, or "turban head") as seems too common in USA. In UK first police officer to appear is probably without firearms anyway. In Iceland they even apologized to the family of the dead [pri.org] when in 2013 the police killed the first person. Yet Europe had/has such things like IRA, ETA, Islamic terrorists, ex Iron Curtain organized crime, Italy Mafia, etc, and police try to capture armed people alive.
OTOH, in USA with so many armed people, or so is repeated in (European only?) news..., why rarely any mention of civilians defending themselves or even "neutralizing the threat"? Not wanting to publicize that or not happening at all? Sincerily, I do not remember any such case.