The USA Freedom Act of 2015 modified some of the pre-existing surveillance laws provided by the USA Patriot Act of 2001. The Act improved citizens’ privacy. However, law enforcement agencies suffered a major blow to their ability to detect and deter crime on multi-level capacities. The changes made in the USA Freedom Act of 2015 will have a negative effect on the law enforcement community.
The Freedom Act prohibited bulk collection of surveillance data by the FBI and NSA (Suarez, 2017). The USA Patriot Act was passed in 2001 following the 9/11 and the 2001 Anthrax attacks on the USA (Cole, 2010). The Act allowed law enforcement agencies to increase their surveillance parameters. Further, suspect immigrants could be detained indefinitely under the act to facilitate investigations on terror activities. However, the USA Freedom Act of 2015 requires that surveillance be done in accordance with provided court orders and permissions (Ombres, 2015). This move reduces the ability of law enforcement agencies to gather intelligence and act on noted patterns from communications and movement of resources. The Freedom Act therefore limits mass surveillance and regulates the operations of the law enforcement community through judicial means.
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The Freedom Act also reduces the preventive ability of security and intelligence agencies. While the Act retains tracking of “lone wolves” and “roving wiretaps”, these are not enough to prevent crime from observed anomalies in communications and financial records (Ombres, 2015). Indeed, crime statistics offer that there has been a rise in the number of terror crimes after enactment of the USA Freedom Act of 2015 (Pearse, 2015). These statistics are clear indicators of the reduced preventive ability of intelligence services.
One change that needs to be made in the USA Freedom Act of 2015 is adopting “super minimization” procedures. The current act leaves a backdoor for data retention through emergency procedures. Super minimization procedures would limit the time which the government can retain data which is not directly related to terrorism. This move would help improve privacy of the citizens while also ensuring that law enforcement agencies focus only on the data that are of significance to national security.
In conclusion, the changes enacted by the Freedom Act mostly serve to improve civilian privacy. However, the ability of intelligence agencies to gather information on terrorist activities is reduced. The USA Freedom Act OF 2015 therefore impacts negatively on the activities of the law enforcement community. Adoption of super minimization procedures would greatly facilitate improvement of the Act.
References
Cole, D. (2010). Terrorism and the Constitution: Sacrificing Civil Liberties in the Name of National Security (Large Print 16pt) . ReadHowYouWant.
Ombres, D. (2015). NSA Domestic Surveillance from the Patriot Act to the Freedom Act: The Underlying History, Constitutional Basis, and the Efforts at Reform. Seton Hall Legis. J. , 39 , 27.
Pearse, J. J. (2015). Investigating terrorism: Current political, legal, and psychological issues . Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons.
Suarez, S. (2017). Is America Safer? The USA FREEDOM Act of 2015 and What the FBI and NSA Have, Can, and Should be Doing. Law School Student Scholarship. 882. https://scholarship.shu.edu/student_scholarship/882
