re wh proposal from police point of view in article apr news clarkson edu tuinstra sunspot ece clarkson edu soe dwight tuinstra writes it might pay to start looking at what this proposal might mean to a police agency it just might be a bad idea for them too ok suppose the ny state police want to tap a suspect s phone they need a warrant just like the old days but unlike the old days they now need to a get two federal agencies to give them the two parts of the key now what happens if there s a tiff between the two escrow houses posession release of keys becomes a political bargaining chit while i think it is unrealistic to suppose that the federal agencies will fail to promptly comply with a court order there is still a good point here local law enforcement will be unable to perform a wiretap without bringing in federal agencies based on the possibly incomplete understanding of the system quoted from d denning only the fbi will be able to decrypt the system key encryption layer which seems to be needed even to identify what escrowed keys to request this moves a great deal of law enforcement power to the federal level the reason i like this point is that it may sway or even persuade people who don t generally line up with the civil liberties crowd a national police force is opposed by people from a broad range of political viewpoints olson umbc edu
