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FBI Can't Sever Lines, Pretend to be Cable Guy, Judge Rules
The FBI can't sever Internet access, and then gain access to surveillance targets by pretending to be the cable guy, a Federal Judge has ruled. To target an online betting ring, the FBI severed the cable and Internet connections to the $25,000-per-night villas at Caesar's Palace Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The FBI then posed as cable repair technicians to gain entry to the premises and record the targets. A ruling (pdf) states such behavior is a slippery slope:
quote:
"Permitting the government to create the need for the occupant to invite a third party into his or her home would effectively allow the government to conduct warrantless searches of the vast majority of residents and hotel rooms in America," Gordon wrote in throwing out evidence the agents collected. "Authorities would need only to disrupt phone, Internet, cable, or other 'non-essential' service and then pose as technicians to gain warrantless entry to the vast majority of homes, hotel rooms, and similarly protected premises across America."
The FBI had argued that because it uses "ruses every day in its undercover operations," that causing outages and posing as service repairmen was certainly allowable.

Most recommended from 16 comments


HeadSpinning
MNSi Internet
join:2005-05-29
Windsor, ON

4 recommendations

HeadSpinning

Member

Isn't it a federal offence?

Isn't it a federal offence to sabotage telecommunications facilities? Cutting that line is a criminal act.
smk11
join:2014-11-12

3 recommendations

smk11

Member

Why stop at cable guys?

EMT's, firefighters, cops, doctors, etc should all be allowed to be impersonated. Think of the access to fight terrorism! Only a terrorist would be against this.

corster
Premium Member
join:2002-02-23
Oshawa, ON

3 recommendations

corster

Premium Member

The crooks didn't find it suspicious...

...that the cable guy showed up right away, not a week from today between 9AM and 9PM?