FAQ :: Where does the U.S. rank as a police state?

America ranks as the fifth worst police state. The Electronic Police State rankings for 2010 have 17 criteria that were used to define an electronic police state:

  1. Daily documents: How much is required day-to-day for residents to present state-issued identity documents or registration.
  2. Border issues: What is demanded for a border entry.
  3. Financial tracking: The state’s ability to search and record financial transactions.
  4. Gag orders: The penalties for revealing to someone else the state is searching their records.
  5. Anti-crypto laws: Bans on cryptography.
  6. Constitutional protections: Either a lack of protections or someone overriding them.
  7. Data storage: The state’s ability to record and keep what it uncovers.
  8. Data search: The processes to search through data.
  9. ISP data retention: The demand for ISPs to save customers’ records.
  10. Telephone data retention: States’ requirements for communications companies to record and save records.
  11. Cell phone records: The saving and using of cell phone users’ records.
  12. Medical records: Demands from states that medical records retain information.
  13. Enforcement: The state’s ability to use force (SWAT teams) to seize someone.
  14. Habeus Corpus: Either an absence of such rights or someone overriding them.
  15. Police-Intel barrier: The absence of a barrier between police and intelligence organizations.
  16. Covert hacking: State operatives meddling in data on private computers covertly.
  17. Loose warrants: Warrants that are being issued without careful review of police claims by a truly independent judge. [1]

Endnotes
[1] The Electronic Police State. Cryptohippie. www.freeworldfilmworks.com/ abbro- policestate2010.pdf.