No One Should Profit From Criminals (Except Us)

from the subtle dept

The head of a company that makes cell phone jammers says mobile operators should hand over all the revenue they make from prisoners using contraband phones in jail. Apparently there is a "growing epidemic of inmates using cell phones in prisons", and the guy says that the "millions of dollars" in question should be given to jail officials to pay for more guards to search for phones. "Nobody should profit from criminals," he says -- except, of course, his company, which wants jammers to be made legal so it can sell some to prisons to combat this "growing epidemic". This is the same company that argued a few years back that the laws banning jammers are unconstitutional; at that point, it was targeting selling jammers to cops to block the use of phones as remote detonators. Maybe basing your business model on getting federal law changed isn't the wisest idea, eh guys?

Filed Under: mobile phone jammers

You Can't Jam The Terrorist's Phones Without Jamming Everybody Else's

from the all-or-nothing dept

Police officials in New York City are investigating how to jam terrorists' cell phones during attacks, following the Mumbai attacks a few months ago when terrorists coordinated their activities via phone. While disrupting criminals' and terrorists' communications could be a useful tool in security forces' arsenal, it's also worth mentioning that technologies like phone jammers can't really work selectively; that is, they can't pick out particular devices, they simply jam everything in a particular area. While this would crudely accomplish the goal of jamming terrorists' phone calls, it would also preclude any other calls, including those of civilians and authorities. Fortunately, this concept isn't lost on NYC police, who say that not blocking calls, and being able to monitor them instead, could be more useful. But even then, it's not clear how authorities could pinpoint terrorists' phones to monitor their conversations without trolling through all the calls being made in an area. At this point, blocking all cell calls during a terrorist attack or large-scale emergency seems like overkill that could be more harmful than helpful.

Filed Under: mobile phone jammers, new york city, terrorists