Two of the city’s top law enforcers blasted Apple over its privacy stance Thursday, saying scores of criminal investigations — including one into the shooting of two cops — have been stymied because officials can’t unlock seized iPhones and iPads.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said his office is sitting on 175 Apple devices “that we cannot now access information from.”
“The kinds of cases that are represented in these phones are homicide, attempted murder, sex abuse of children, sex trafficking, assault, robbery, identity theft and all manner of other crimes,” Vance said.
NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton held up an iPhone that he said was taken from an associate of Malik Chavis, who shot and wounded two cops before killing himself in a Bronx housing project Feb. 4.
Bratton said Apple’s refusal to help unlock the phone served no purpose beyond seeking “a competitive edge” against Google.
“They’re vying with each other on who can effectively screw up law enforcement more,” he said.
Bratton and Vance blamed their problem on Apple’s 2014 introduction of its iOS 8 operating system, which includes a feature that destroys a device’s data after 10 failed tries to unlock it.
Apple is under court order to create software so the FBI can disable the auto-erase function on an iPhone 5c used by ISIS supporter Syed Rizwan Farook before he and his wife killed 14 people in last year’s shooting rampage in San Bernardino, Calif.
Farook and Tashfeen Malik both died in a subsequent gun battle with cops.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has vowed to fight the order by US Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym, saying the feds want his company to “build a back door” that “would have the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone’s physical possession.”
Apple has hired former US Solicitor General Ted Olson to help it battle the Justice Department, according to reports. Olson successfully represented President George W. Bush during the disputed 2000 election.
If Apple loses the court fight and still refuses to help hack Farook’s phone, Cook could be jailed for contempt, said Houston lawyer Joel Androphy.