Q: What if Jane X. Badgal were to fill a laptop case with explosives and a GPS/camera, then look for someone's open car near a police station and leave the device in it?
A: Police officer grabs device, remote detonation happens, with little evidence to go on.
If any "dangerous" incident will happen it will be more likely if a plain cloths police officer will open some one's car door in sight of the owner and the owner over reacts and lashes out. Some one booby trapping electronics to blow up cops what is this a 90's action film? Next they'll rig a police cruiser to explode if they go below 60....
P.S. I'm sure that if some one puts a bomb in a laptop that would be more than "little to no evidence", the bomb components, explosives used, the car and who ever drove it there, that's a mountain of forensic evidence right there....
> there would be quite an easier way to do so
First, psychos are not rational evaluators. Second, setting a bomb in a public place is a lot easier than sniping cops. There's no need to run, there's no head-to-head confrontation. The weapon can be untraceably manufactured in one's home - you can't just whip together a decent sniper rifle.
> Some one booby trapping electronics to blow up cops what is this a 90's action film?
That was a witty phrase in the Aughts to shut down outsiders in security circles, but since then, there have been growing cases of snipers attacking police. It's reality, unfortunately and this policy increases the attack surface of officer security. [ 1 2 3 4 ].
[ 1 ] http://abcnews.go.com/US/suspect-pennsylvania-cop-shooting-s...
[ 2 ] http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/13/us/dallas-police-headquarters-...
[ 3 ] http://www.cbsnews.com/news/sniper-kills-two-officers-later-...
[ 4 ] http://gothamist.com/2013/07/05/police_search_for_sniper_who...
Here's what I came up with for this one: this system allows participants to exchange goods and currency, in broad daylight, with plausible deniability.