Minnesota is now using contact tracing to track protestors, as demonstrations escalate [telecom]

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Minnesota is now using contact tracing to track protestors, as demonstrations escalate.

In some cities like Minneapolis, though, officials are starting to turn to a familiar tool to investigate networks of protestors. The tool is contact-tracing, and it's a familiar tool in that people have been hearing about it frequently in recent weeks as an important component of a comprehensive coronavirus pandemic response. According to Minnesota Public Safety Commissioner John Harringon, officials there have been using what they describe, without going into much detail, as contact-tracing in order to build out a picture of protestor affiliations - a process that officials in the state say has led them to conclude that much of the protest activity there is being fueled by people from outside coming in.