Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 4016 AMERICAN POLICE BEAT: APRIL 2016 Letters Here’s your chance to sound off about stuff you’vereadinAmericanPoliceBeat,frustrations with the job, information you need or even something positive. Let’s hear it. E-mail: Cynthia@apbweb.com or fax: 646-657-0162. OPINION/EDITORIAL Mistake in March issue I noticed the historical photo on page 10 in the March issue and see that it alleged to be NYPD making an ar- rest. I might be wrong but it appears to be the London Metropolitan Police making an arrest. Having spent time living in both London and New York City I got familiar with the uniform styles of both places. That and the cap badge is identical in shape and size to the London Metropolitan Police cap badge that I’ve got in my collection. Just thought you might want to know. – Sgt. Dan Enig University Park Police University Park, Maryland Thoughts on firing of Texas Trooper A recent article about Texas State Trooper Brian Encinia, who was indicted over the ar- rest of Sandra Bland, generated hundreds of comments. Bland’s mysterious death while being held in custody launched a fire- storm of controversy last year, and as a result Trooper Encinia was fired by the Texas Depart- ment of Public Safety. Here are a few of the comments: Reese Hays: This is unjust. A man doing his job only to lose a career because of one incident with a mentally ill person is not right. Shame on the DPS and shame to people who attack this man’s character. One incident does not define a person or a po- lice officer. John S. Dobbins: So every- one who doesn’t comply with an officer’s direction is mentally ill? It takes a little more than what she did to get a 72 hour committ- ment. Alma Glueck: It’s a sad day when you use a police officer who was only doing his job as a scapegoat to save your job. Shame on that Dept. Christopher Emm: His boss had to sacrifice him to get himself and the depart- ment off the hook and so he wouldn’t look like a racist. Douglas Eugene Barker: Should he be reprimanded? Yes. He let his temper get the best of him. But should he be fired? No. What hap- pened to her after the stop when she was in jail is not the trooper’s fault. Test for politicians We all know that if the public truly understood the nature of your job, the various complex skills re- Continued on page 28 Everyone’s so into his or her cell phones these days we’ve lost sight of the most im- portant thing – security. The FBI is currently in a battle with the Apple corporation that will determine whether or not law enforcement can access one of the San Bernardino massacre shoot- ers’ smart phones. The FBI and other law enforcement agencies say it’s critically important for homeland security that investigators get access to the phone. But the Silicon Valley tech titans have a million excuses why they shouldn’t have to do that. They make all kinds of outrageous claims that looking into the phone and its contents will “invade people’s privacy.” It’s like some people slept through or have forgotten 9/11. If we want good security we’re all going to have to make sacrifices in terms of privacy and our Constitutional rights. After all, no one complains about taking his or her shoes off at the TSA checkpoint, even though searching someone without any suspicion of criminal wrongdoing is blatantly unconstitutional. The most disturbing part of the conflict between the FBI and Apple is that some of the victims’ own families are siding with Apple against the police. So next time a suspected terrorist shoots up his place of work and leaves the walls painted red with the blood of the innocent, don’t ask why federal law enforcement dropped the ball. Privacy or security – choose one It’s basically the dumbest plan ever You really have to hand it to James Comey and the FBI. If you thought putting Whitey Bulger on the federal payroll was a bad idea, wait until you get a load of what they want to do now. The FBI isn’t technologically proficient. So in order to search the phone of one of the two San Bernardino shooters, they want Apple to give them a magic key, or build a “back door,” that would allow them to see what’s on any smart phone, anytime, any place. Maybe Hillary Clinton’s political team is more tech-savvy than the Bureau, so the feds may really want the key and back door so they can finally get to the bottom of the long-running Clinton email investigation. But that’s a stretch. It’s much more likely that the FBI wants full access to all commu- nications. So what’s the downside for those outside the Bureau should Comey get his wish and receive the magic key? First off, the key could be stolen by hackers from outfits like Anonymous that routinely run circles around law enforcement. They make copies of the key and sell them for top dollar. Then the real fun begins! Using the key, hackers can now use the dirt they’ve found on the FBI, JP Morgan and the Central Intelligence Agency to demand hefty ransom payments. And terrorists can use the key spy on the counter-intelligence industry. Here’s the kicker – they don’t want to do this in order to access the shooter’s personal phone – Verizon already gave the feds ev- erything from his personal phone – but the fight is over his county-issued work phone. So in order to determine whether the shooter was using both his work and per- sonal cell phones to communicate with evil-doers, the idea is that we eviscerate what little effective cyber security protocols are currently in place. "NFSJDBO
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