aeranvar

Follow up to this:

Presumably an NSL is targeted at a company and not an individual engineer. During the Apple case, there was a great deal of discussion about whether the engineers with the necessary expertise might quit rather than comply with the court order.

If this were to happen with an NSL - all of the engineers with the necessary experience to implement the NSL resigning - would there be any legal consequences?

Absolutely. And the lack of engineers would probably blow secrecy of the NSL as well. The company would probably have to make some kind of announcement as there would likely be some kind of quality of service issues.

I suppose I'm really interested in the following:

(1) Can individual employees be compelled to cooperate through NSLs?

(2) Would the resignation of an engineer responsible for implementing an NSL be something that could get the engineer hit with contempt?

(3) Would the company be required to hire new engineers to comply with the NSL? I could see some startups that are otherwise willing to comply opting to close down rather than replace a core engineering team.

(4) Could the company turn mass resignations into an undue burden argument?

How hopeful are you about the work the EFF is doing in the fight against the surveillance state? Given the scale of the challenges before the organization, have you ever felt like giving up?

This is a great idea! I'm glad to see police reaching out to the internet community.

As a police officer, do you ever worry about the militarization of police forces and the use of SWAT teams to arrest non-violent offenders? Many members of the public appreciate that police work is a dangerous activity and recognize the need for officers to protect themselves, but worry that SWAT teams are being used too frequently.

Sorry, let me clarify. I wasn't just speaking about DPD's SWAT team. I don't know that much about crime in Denver and the extent to which it requires SWAT activities. Rather, I was asking about your opinion on this practice nation-wide, given your expertise.

So, let me rephrase this question: Given your expertise, would you be concerned if you found out other police departments across the country were using their SWAT teams in cases that were not high-risk?

I don't want anyone to think I'm bashing here. I have all the respect in the world for police officers and SWAT team members given the very dangerous work they engage in. However, it's my understanding (which may be wrong) that SWAT-team use is on the rise while violent crime is on the decline. There are also some crimes, such as hacking, that seem difficult to justify a SWAT raid for.