A crossing incident is by law a trespassing case, and local law enforcement has no authority over the data recorder. That belongs entirely to the carrier. After an incident, there is a secure chain of custody protocol regarding that hard drive because it will be evidence for the defense (the carrier) in a lawsuit if necessary.
As much as the local LEOs are accustomed to their authority, in these incidents they have none regarding the train, the crew, or the evidence (though a lot of them seem to have not got the memo).
I am no legal expert and I am sure these regulations change by locality but this makes no sense to me.
Law enforcement can’t request a court ordered search warrant for that evidence? FAA Investigators can and do for the black box pertaining to aircraft accidents but I guess I have never heard of one not being voluntarily handed over.
That doesn’t seem to be an attorney-client privilege situation, which is about the only route I know of to withhold evidence when under a subpeona.
Hell if I know….
