In an effort to catch the arsonists responsible for thousands of burned cars in Germany's capital, and not just that one jealous guy from last year, Berlin police have monitered 4.2 million cell phone connections. They haven't caught a single arsonist.
According to Berlin's Tageszeitung, Berlin police started collecting cell phone data in 2008, tracking the data on hundreds of thousands of phones all over the city. They do not record conversations, but do trace calls and texts, both on the side of the sender and of the receiver. Police have also used this cell data to identify the names and addresses of nearly a thousand people living near the sites of car fires.
Berlin's police will have a hard time making a case for continuing their search (they have another 1.7 million checks planned), given that they have absolutely nothing to show for this possible breach of citizen's rights.
Photo Credit: Associated Press