NOTE: This article first appeared on LinkedIn.
I recognize that FBI Director James Comey leads an agency that has a difficult job. But Comey and the FBI must figure out new methods for investigating crime.
When commenting on the announcements that smartphone companies will be working on making data encryption stronger, Comey complains that the FBI’s job will be made more difficult. Comey was quoted as saying, “If this becomes the norm, I suggest to you that homicide cases could be stalled, suspects walked free, child exploitation not discovered and prosecuted.”
What Comey does not say is that there are cases that have not been solved from times when these devices did not exist. A few examples that came to mind without even looking them up are the Zodiac Killer in California, actor Bob Crane’s murder, rapper Tupac Shakur, JonBenet Ramsey, and Jimmy Hoffa.
Rather than complaining, Comey and the FBI has to embrace the evolution and learn how to investigate crimes in this new environment because a smartphone did not help D.B. Cooper parachute from an airplane with $200,000 never to be found again!