Protocol: New York lawmakers want to outlaw geofence warrants as protests grow

Protocol: New York lawmakers want to outlaw geofence warrants as protests grow by IssieLapowsky (“Geofence warrants are a relatively new but rapidly expanding phenomenon. Rather than issuing a warrant for data on a specific individual, these warrants seek information on all of the devices in a given area at a given time…Along with the National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys’ Fourth Amendment Center and Myrie, they began drafting legislation. In April of this year, they introduced the bill, in part, as a response to the COVID-19 crisis, which was already opening the door to new forms of location tracking to assist in contact-tracing efforts. ‘I thought it was important to not have this pandemic be the source of data collection that could adversely impact a lot of people in the community,’ Myrie, who represents a predominantly Black district in Brooklyn, said. The Black Lives Matter protests, he said, have only added to the urgency of the legislation.”)