[CSMastermind]

If you have a safe in your home and you knowingly wire up a bomb that goes off when a certain lever is pulled then you lie to the police and tell them the way to open the safe is to pull that lever you'd pretty clearly be responsible for the damage done when the bomb goes off.

I don't see why this would be any different.

[phoghed]

Because booby traps are illegal and wiping your phone doesn’t kill or maim the officer

[tomtomtom777]

I fully agree but that is a different argument than the one mingus88 presented. They suggested that the owner did not wipe the device because they did not actively enter the pin, which seems to be a flawed idea because legally intent matters.

[fluoridation]

They're still fundamentally different questions. Rigging up a bomb to a safe is already illegal, even if the bomb never goes off. Setting up a phone to destroy its own data under certain conditions is not.

[idbnstra]

cause you're not harming the officer. this is more like a safe that destroys whatever is inside