Kelsey's Law

[Ben]

This just passed. While I completely agree with the theoretical premise of the law, I' a bit worried about implementation. I absolutely think that in the case of a missing child or loved one, cell carriers should make all information immediately available for location tracking. On the other hand, I fear this law is ripe for abuse and (wow, agreeing with the ACLU here) "Emergency" is likely going to be broadly redefined.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/04/13/mother-murdered-teen-pushes-for-law-mandating-cell-phone-carriers-to-release/

[vaskidmark]

If it saves just one hour in locating the body.

As cruel as it may sound on the surface, I still say go wake up a judge and convince him you need the search warrant for the info.  What is merel;y upsetting today most likely will become "an emegency" tomorrow because it allows cops to go charging about telling someone what to do, and because it shuts up the emotionally distraught by proving the cops are "doing something".

Access to the information is generally useful, but based on published reports of how quickly an abducted person winds up a murder victim I do not forsee this having a significant lifesaving impact.  The mentally disoriented usually wander around for quite some time without falling into the hands of depraved murders/ kidnappers just looking for (usually) elderly and (usually) non-wealthy victims.  And there are products for sale that track the mentally disoriented - go buy them and leave the phone company alone to screw up my service without interruption from Johnny Law.

Evil happens.  People do not like evil, and do not like it when evil strikes that closely.  But dreaming up laws that only make you feel like something is being done, as opposed to doing something in time to prevent evil from happening, is just that - it makes you "feel" like something is being done.

(Let me catch my breath for a moment.)

OK, now we can go on to discuss all the potentialities for abusing the law.

....

There, that took quite a while, but we covered at least the surface of the slippery slope.

stay safe.

[Ben]

This is probably just a pipe dream, because implementation and paperwork would likely be cost prohibitive, but it seems a better resolution would be that much like we have "emergency contacts" for certain things, when they sign up for cell service, could those who choose to do so not sign up a designated person to say, "John Doe is missing. I am their emergency contact, please provide their last known location."? This way the only records that are immediately available without going through legal procedures would be the records of those who choose to make them available.

The majority of these cases would likely be children, so the "emergency contact" would be the parent, who is likely the cell phone "owner" anyway. Much like some parents choose to have their children fingerprinted, while others choose not to. Let us each choose our own values for freedom versus safety.

[T.O.M.]

As someone who has taken a few 2:00a.m. calls looking for emergency orders (though not search warrants...magistrates cannot sign search  warrants in Ohio), you don't mind if the request is valid.  For me, it's usually a request for emergency custody of a child who has been abused or neglected....parents in those cases always refuse to   authorizze treatment.  But I agree....get a warrant.