UK Police Seek USB Computer Crime Detector

Police are in talks with companies about deploying a tool to detect evidence of illegal activity on PCs, aiming for it to be as easy to use as a breathalyser.

Officers in the Association of Chief Police Officers' (Acpo) e-crime group are looking into commercial devices that can search text, pictures and computer code on a hard disc for material of interest.

Such 'digital triage' tools would allow police the flexibility to search for anything from text in emails relating to stolen goods to illegal images.
source

Wonder how long it will be until they get these things in full use? I wouldn't doubt for a second that cops in the US already have this, or something similar. If they don't they probably will soon and the Fourth Amendment probably won't help. They'll just use the same logical end-run they used to get it legal to use drug/bomb-sniffing dogs when and wherever they please. Scary stuff...


TA