As you’re probably aware by now, Apple and the FBI are currently locked in a bitter struggle over Apple’s refusal to unlock an iPhone that belonged to Syed Rizwan Farook, one of the shooters in the San Bernardino attacks last December.
But in an interview with NPR on Friday, San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan expressed doubt that the FBI would find anything useful on the phone, even if they did manage to break into it:
“I’ll be honest with you, I think that there is a reasonably good chance that there is nothing of any value on the phone,”
Burguan told NPR’s Steve Inskeep.
For people who have been following the case closely, this probably won’t come as a surprise.
For one, the iPhone in question was Farook’s work phone, so it’s unlikely that he would have used it in the planning of the attack. Secondly, Farook and his wife made a point of destroying their cell phones, hard drives and other electronic devices before going on their shooting spree. If Farook had used his work phone in the planning, he probably would have made sure to destroy it along with all the rest of the electronics.
Still, despite his doubts about the contents of the phone, Chief Burguan is not against the idea of breaking into it:
“This is an effort to leave no stone unturned in the investigation. (To) allow this phone to sit there and not make an effort to get the information or the data that may be inside of that phone is simply not fair to the victims and their families. The worst-case scenario obviously, is that maybe there was some information on there that would lead to a larger plot or to a larger network and therefore are other people out there that are still a potential danger. I think the probability is probably low, but it could be.”
You can listen to the interview in its entirety here.