All New Mexicans deserve digital privacy and freedom from unreasonable government surveillance. Instead of allowing police to demand data on everyone in an area or everyone who searched certain terms online, we need clear legal protections that safeguard both public safety and constitutional rights.
Reverse warrants are a modern violation of constitutional rights.
These warrants come in two forms: geofence warrants that force tech companies to reveal all users in a specific location, and keyword warrants that expose everyone who searched certain terms online. This practice directly contradicts the Fourth Amendment's protection against general warrants - a core principle dating back to America's founding.
Their use is skyrocketing.
Google's transparency data shows that reverse location warrant requests in New Mexico increased thirteenfold from 2018-2020. This represents just one company's data - the true scale of surveillance is likely much larger, threatening the privacy of countless New Mexicans.
Innocent people face criminal suspicion.
Once identified through a reverse warrant, individuals can be subjected to deeper privacy invasions as police investigate whether they're connected to a crime. This means innocent people's private lives are exposed simply because they were near a crime scene or searched for the wrong terms online.
Constitutional rights are chilled.
Law enforcement has already used these warrants to identify protesters at Black Lives Matter demonstrations and January 6th events, without distinguishing between lawful protesters and those engaged in illegal behavior.
New Mexicans deserve real solutions.
Effective law enforcement doesn't require violating the privacy rights of innocent people. The New Mexico legislature must ban reverse warrants to protect constitutional rights while allowing police to use proper, targeted warrants based on probable cause.
