iPhone raid in USA put’s high-tech enforcement squad in spotlight

When a top-secret prototype of Apple Inc.’s new iPhone went missing recently, the computer giant summoned Silicon Valley’s version of the cavalry — an elite squad whose main mission is investigating crimes against high-tech companies.

Little-known outside the tech world, the unit is suddenly in the spotlight for its April 23 raid on the Bay Area home of Jason Chen, the 29-year-old technology blogger who had gained possession of the missing phone.

The unit swept in after Chen posted a photo and details of the new iPhone on the Gizmodo.com website. But the raid itself has become secondary to a larger debate burning up Silicon Valley and the blogosphere: What is this high-tech police force, and who controls it?

“It’s the iPolice,” said Steve Meister, a former Los Angeles County deputy district attorney. “This whole thing appears, rightly or wrongly, to be law enforcement doing the bidding of a private company.”

The task force, called REACT (for Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team), is a kind of SWAT team, chartered in 1997 to focus on “large-scale crimes that victimize the high technology industry in the Bay Area.”

The unit is composed of 30 investigators and prosecutors on loan from local, state and federal agencies in the Bay Area, including the FBI and the Secret Service. These various jurisdictions cover some of the salary costs under their own budgets; the rest of comes from a $2.3-million allotment from the state and Santa Clara County.

Led by the Santa Clara County district attorney’s office the task force investigates a variety of fraud, piracy and identity theft cases on behalf of both individuals and corporations.

But the recent raid has renewed worries about the close ties between the industry and specialized enforcement units such as REACT. One concern is that Apple and other high-profile tech companies, because of the economic benefits they bring to the state and their close relations with REACT, get a higher level of service and attention than other businesses and individuals. In 2008, technology industry payrolls pumped more than $100 billion into the California economy.

Read more of this article by David Sarno and Jessica Guynn, Los Angeles Times

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