BPD bought secret phone monitor by using funds hidden from public oversight

Speaking of which, are we ever as a voting public going to address how sketchy and corrupt the process of "civil forfeiture" is?

Secret phone monitors, secret slush funds how many other local police departments have slush funds ?

And they whine about getting their budget reduced slightly. What else are they hiding from the public?

I'm confused as to how "taking forfeiture dollars out of the hands of law enforcement and rerouting them into the state’s general fund" was not the original and final intent of these asset forfeitures.

Or are these forfeitures, and I'm being rhetorical here, some sort of self-financing mechanism akin to a third world roadside shakedown where it's easier to keep the guys on the job if they can make some side money to buy whatever it is they want while keeping it hidden from the very people charged with keeping an eye on them?

I won't even address the civil liberties aspect here because if the money doesn't exist, the purchase of the equipment is obfuscated and hey there's no actual policy on how and when to deploy it then there's zero accountability with these people and as long as that's the status quo then they'll keep on doing it while fear-mongering the suburban voters into silence whenever some radical talks about sensible approaches to reigning in the lawlessness of entitled civil service employees.

"if no criminal charges are brought, law enforcement almost always keep the money"

steal the money, decline charges, collect overtime, buy spy equipment without oversight, steal the money and on and on.

Why is collecting everyone's cell phone data without a warrant allowed?

And why does the technology allow it? This is a classic example of the type of security hole that encryption and authentication are supposed to prevent. Does the cell phone communication standard have such poor security that this machine walks right in the open door? Or is this data intentionally designed to be available to cops? And if cops can do it, can any random person who has the money for the machine?

You have to think like a criminal to catch a criminal. When your thinking turns to acts like secret searches without warrants, it becomes (or should become) a criminal act. I mean... it's all the same.

Cheat to win! Steal, spy, hide your killings and beat downs and threatening, and collect pay for your work. Every once-in-a-while join forces normally in opposition and get a successful criminal organization going!

Pay for a couple budget cellphone accounts.
Leave those phones plugged in and powered on in disparate locations and use call forwarding.

Or use other methods of communication.
Hoovering data for analysis is a learned behavior from successful tech companies and Federal government security agencies.

Trickle down... into the depths of immorality.