Ten Cops Can't Recover Police Chief's Son's iPhone 277
Hugh Pickens writes "The Oakland Tribune reports that when Berkeley police Chief Michael Meehan's son's cell phone was stolen from a school locker in January, ten police officers were sent to track down the stolen iPhone, with some working overtime at taxpayer expense. 'If your cell phone was stolen or my cell phone was stolen, I don't think any officer would be investigating it,' says Michael Sherman, vice chairman of the Berkeley Police Review Commission, a city watchdog group. 'They have more important things to do. We have crime in the streets.' But the kicker is that even with all those cops swarming around, looking for an iPhone equipped with the Find My iPhone tracking software, police were not able to locate the phone. 'If 10 cops who know a neighborhood can't find an iPhone that's broadcasting its location, that shouldn't give you a lot of confidence in your own vigilante recovery of a stolen iProduct,' writes Alexis Madrigal. 'Just saying. Consider this a PSA: just buy a new phone.'"
Also intimidates journalists (Score:2, Informative)
He earlier sent an officer to a journalist's house in the middle of the night to intimidate him.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/11/BANH1NJ73K.DTL
Re:How Is This Story News For Nerds??! (Score:4, Informative)
Perhaps you should read a little harder.
The fact that a service designed to help find stolen iPhones failed to work is why this is here.
Re:That's the police for you (Score:5, Informative)
Meanwhile, and where I live, the police did recover my brother's cheap-ass Nokia. The cop just sent a request for the phone's location to the mobile operator, along with my brother's signed statement on how he had lost his phone, identified a teenage kid who had stolen before, stopped by his house and got the phone back. Then they called my brother to go pick it up.
Re:I would be more worried... (Score:2, Informative)
Interesetingly, this is also another typical anti-LE karma-grabbing post.
You weren't there. The only information you have is what was in the article, which states that contact was made at several homes in an attempt to locate the phone. You have no clue as to the contents of those contacts or any way of accurately quantifying the competence of the officers involved.
Now, 10 cops for a missing cell phone... you could call that obnoxious -- at the very least! Competence is not an issue here, though.
Re:That's the police for you (Score:5, Informative)
Find My iPhone has a feature that allows you to play a tone, even if the phone is on silent.
Of course, if the phone is off, you're screwed. At least you can remotely wipe it.
Re:I would be more worried... (Score:5, Informative)
I think it illustrates limitations in the technology more than human incompetence. The service can't find your phone. It can tell you that your phone is near 55th and San Pedro, but it's not going to tell you which house and room the thing is sitting in, or whose pocket it has been put in. I bet I can stash a phone "near" any intersection in the country and you wouldn't be able to find it with only that information.
Notice that I'm not suggesting a solution... the service does what it does, but it's not a panacea for finding lost things.
I bet I can find the stolen iPhone. I would do what every other LE officer would do. He would walk up to the location and then call the lost iPhone's cell number. Then with probable cause he could seize any phone that rang and was answered matching the audio he heard with his observation of the suspects lips.
This happens nearly every day in the USA. I think it is hilarious when the cops seize guns and a large drug stash at the same time from the perp and his urban buddies. My favorite form of instant justice is hearing there were panicked perps who jumped out of a second floor or higher window injuring themselves only to be caught by more backup cops waiting below.
Re:I would be more worried... (Score:4, Informative)
this dude is crazy (Score:5, Informative)
same guy sent a COP over to a REPORTERS house at MIDNIGHT because he was worried about a story which was about to run.
http://www.dailycal.org/2012/03/10/berkeley-police-chief-sends-officer-to-reporters-home/ [dailycal.org]
Berkeley Police Chief Michael Meehan ordered a sergeant to the home of a reporter around 12:45 a.m. Friday to request changes to a story that Meehan felt inaccurately portrayed him, media outlets reported this weekend.
Re:That's the police for you (Score:5, Informative)
IANASCJ, but the key word is "probable".
If there are two apartments, and a felony suspect went into one of them, and one of them houses a person with a long arrest record and the other doesn't, a judge may approve the search order as probable cause. And if it doesn't pan out, they now know have probable cause for the other house.
But much more than that, and the fourth amendment protection trumps the police's desire to catch the criminal.
Only when life and health is in imminent danger can they bypass this - if there is someone sniping from an apartment complex, they can search the entire premises because saving lives trumps the fourth amendment protection. Likewise for a bomb threat. But if it's a thief or pot smoker, they need to get an approved search warrant for every apartment they want to search.