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Rhode Island police seek open access to Internet, phone records PROVIDENCE, R.I. --The Rhode Island General Assembly is considering legislation that could give police access to Internet and phone records and credit card and bank information without a warrant or other court review, civil libertarians said. The state police said the legislation would help track down the increasing instances of Internet-based crime, including fraud and child exploitation. They say they are only seeking expanded access to Internet records, not phone or banking records. But lawyers familiar with this area of law say the bills as crafted would give Rhode island police the right to obtain the same information that some of the nation's major communication companies have been accused of giving to the National Security Agency illegally. USA Today reported last month that Verizon Communications Inc., BellSouth Corp. and AT&T Corp. began turning over tens of millions of phone records to the NSA after the spy agency requested the records following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks as part of an anti-terrorism surveillance program. Lawyers in Rhode Island have filed class-action lawsuits on behalf of customers against these companies. Some of the same lawyers and the Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union are speaking out against the bills, scheduled for a hearing and possibly a vote Tuesday before a state House committee. The Senate has already passed a version of the bill. Kevin Bankston, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation who works regularly with federal surveillance and electronic records law, said the legislation contains language from federal law that includes access to phone records. Critics like Bankston say under the proposed legislation, the only standard the police would need to get a customer's information is an assertion by a police chief that the information is necessary for an investigation. Bank and credit card information could also be included to show means of payment for phone or Internet services, critics say. State police say going before a judge to get a warrant can be time-consuming and cumbersome. Cpl. John Killian, the state police's computer crime specialist, said it can take three to four hours of work to obtain a warrant. "There's a balance between privacy and police authority," Killian said. "The current situation is weighted too far on the side of privacy." ---------------------------------------------------
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