tonight, american civil liberties union attorney katherine crump on police use of technology for surveillance purposes and whether current law adequately protects an individual's right to privacy, at 8:00 p.m., on "the communicators," on c-span2. >>> four years ago, i was a washington outsider. four years later, i'm at this dinner. four years ago, i looked like this. today i look like this. and four years from now,ly look like this. [ applause ] that's not even funny. >> mr. president, you remember when the country rallied around you in hopes of a better tomorrow? that was hilarious. that was the best one yet. [ laughter ] but honestly, it's a thrill for me to be here with the president, a man who i think has done his best to guide us through some very difficult times and paid a heavy price for it. there's a term for guys like president obama. probably not two terms but -- there is. >> miss any part of the white house correspondents dinner? you can watch anytime online at the c-span video library. behind the scenes, the red carpet, and all the entertainment at c-span.org/videolibrary. >>> thi

joining us from our new york studio is katherine crump, a staff attorney with the american civil liberties union -- catherine crump, and also josh smith of the national civil liberties journal. if we could start with the use of cell phone tracking by police departments. what was the report about? >> the aclu has believe for some time that police departments around the country are tracking people cell phones on a routine basis, often without getting a warrant based on probable cause. that is what we thought, but we were not actually sure. in august, 35 affiliate's in 32 states around the country filed a total of just over 380 public records request from specific law enforcement agencies asking about the policies, procedures, and practices for tracking cell phones. the report we put up earlier this month documented the findings from that study. >> what did you find? >> we found that virtually all law enforcement agencies who responded to our request engaged in cell phone tracking, that it is in fact now completely routine surveillance tool that is just comment in the arsenals of law enforcem

ben crump, stand by for one second, please. i want it bring in katherine krooier, former judge and prosecutor in texas and award winning journalist, and also a best selling author with the new book, "patriot acts." also with us is john burriss, thank you both for being here tonight. let me start with you catherine, how could this development effect the case? >> very dramatically certainly. if either he were to literally disappear or represent himself, and certainly if he is communicating with the prosecutor saying don't worry about those lawyers, i'm really sort of on my own, he seems to be asserting self representation. but i would be surprised if the prosecutors investigators with law enforcement don't know where he is. first of all, the lawyers made it clear they knew he left the state. i think they had an idea before losing contact on sunday. besides that, between land lines, other means of keeping tabs on people, cell phones, i'm sure law enforcement has a pretty good idea of where he is. what my gut says, this sort of irrational behavior, you do wond