The previous chapter dealt with the use of new technologies by criminals; this chapter deals with the other side of the picture. I begin by looking at ways in which new technologies can be used to enforce the law and some associated risks. I then go on – via a brief detour to the eighteenth century – to consider how technologies discussed in earlier chapters may affect not only how law is enforced but by whom.

HIGH-TECH CRIME CONTROL

Criminals are not the only ones who can use new technologies; cops can too. Insofar as enforcing law is a good thing, new technologies that make it easier are a good thing. But the ability to enforce the law is not an unmixed blessing – the easier it is to enforce laws, the easier it is to enforce bad laws.

There are two different ways in which our institutions can prevent governments from doing bad things. One is by making particular bad acts illegal. The other is by making them impossible. That distinction appeared back in Chapter 3, when I argued that unregulated encryption could serve as the twenty-first-century version of the Second Amendment – a way of limiting the ability of governments to control their citizens.

For a less exotic example, consider the Fourth Amendment's restrictions on searches – the requirement of a warrant issued upon showing of reasonable cause.