Apple Sits on the Steering Committee of the Police Force That Raided Gizmodo

Apple sits on the steering committee of the police task force that raided the home of Gizmodo's Jason Chen, according to Yahoo News.

The article questions what role Apple played in the seizure of computers and servers using a possibly illegal warrant.

The San Mateo District Attorney's office, told Yahoo! News that the search warrant on Chen's home was executed by members of the REACT Task Force in the course of investigating a "possible theft," but he didn't say whether the target was Gizmodo or the anonymous tipster who found the phone. In either case, it's hard to imagine — even if you grant that a theft may have occurred under California law, which requires people who come across lost items to make a good-faith effort to return them to their owner — how the loss of a single phone in a bar merits the involvement of an elite task force of local, state, and federal authorities devoted to "reducing the incidence of high technology crime through the apprehension of the professional organizers of large-scale criminal activities," as the REACT website motto characterizes its mission.


Chief Deputy at San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office, Stephen Wagstaffe said, "It depends, If there's something unusual about the phone, then yes, REACT would get involved. It deals with anything that's high-tech. So if it's hard to put a value on it — for instance, if it's not just any cell phone — then a local police force might have trouble assessing its value, and the task force would have the expertise to do that."

Yahoo News asked the REACT spokeswoman to confirm Apple's presence on the committee and to explain what, precisely, the committee does and how it relates to the task force's law enforcement efforts. She didn't get back to them.

Read More [via CultofMac]