Police Chief on “Get A Warrant” – “I wish it was just as simple.”

June 26th, 2014

Responding to the Chief Justice’s admonition of “Get a warrant,” the International Association of Chiefs of Police complained that it wasn’t that easy.

In an opinion hailed as a major advance for personal privacy in the digital age, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote that cellphones are tiny computers that can be said to contain “the privacies of life.” And so the opinion concluded that the message for police in most cases is simple: “get a warrant.”

That requirement, however, could hinder law enforcement, said Yousry Zakhary, president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. “I wish it was just as simple as ‘get a warrant’ ” to comply with the law, he said. “It takes time — and key evidence could be lost.”

Duh. It’s not supposed to be that easy.