[levinb]

> Out of charity, I'll assume the former. But to be honest, every time I've spoken at length about this with LEOs, it's inevitably turned out to be the latter.

I am sure this is often true at the local LE level. But remember, they deal almost entirely with criminal investigations about individuals for things that do not present a broader risk to the public (beyond their continued individual behavior).

In our case, we are not reifying 'the drug menace' to a public level; we are trying to find out if a barge is full of vegetable oil or an explosive polymerization agent. And in those cases, no, I don't think your rights to privacy supersede our obligation to understand if there's a major threat to other people.

> That doesn't matter. You're still talking about accessing private, sensitive data about an individual.

This is true and I can assure you I know quite a bit about what can be in people medical records (I am a MD who has worked extensively in medical records exchange and machine learning). I don't think accessing this kind of data should be possible without genuine need.

> Yes, and that's exactly why warrants exist.

In our case at least, warrants wouldn't even make sense. We were not conducting criminal investigations and asking for access to pursue a person against their will, in response to a crime. We were trying to find out about near-term threats to other people.

I think you and I probably agree on the spirit here - it's just that in our case (and cases like the NTSB or FAA) there are compelling public interests that supersede someones right to privacy. Finding out if you were prescribed benzos so I can charge you for some garbage possession misdemeanor is not one; finding out if there's 30,000 barrels of explosive leaking under a highway is.

No?

[chimeracoder]

> In our case at least, warrants wouldn't even make sense. We were not conducting criminal investigations and asking for access to pursue a person against their will, in response to a crime. We were trying to find out about near-term threats to other people....Finding out if you were prescribed benzos so I can charge you for some garbage possession misdemeanor is not one; finding out if there's 30,000 barrels of explosive leaking under a highway is.

Nothing you have said, in this comment or in the rest of the thread, refutes the point that warrants are the mechanism by which the legal system intermediates this power. It's quite telling that even in a completely constructed example chosen for the discussion at hand, you're not actually making a case that cops need access to people's medical information without a warrant.

> I think you and I probably agree on the spirit here - it's just that in our case (and cases like the NTSB or FAA) there are compelling public interests that supersede someones right to privacy.

No, I'm saying that it is literally not your job as a member of law enforcement to decide when the public interest "supersedes" someone's right to privacy. That's what a judge is for. That's why warrants exist.

[stackskipton]

Yes, No.

  there are compelling public interests that supersede someones right to privacy.

This is road to hell path paved with good intentions. All crime has compelling public interests to be prevented. Using that logic, cops should be able to search everywhere. It's compelling public interest to stop people who do bad things.

[caskstrength]

> And in those cases, no, I don't think your rights to privacy supersede our obligation to understand if there's a major threat to other people.

> No?

No.