Comment by InsomniacL

An attacker would have to both compromise the police database AND Apple to retrieve the data.

The Key could even be split, say 3 ways. Apple holds 1 piece, the police hold another, and the Courts hold the third, all three would be needed to decrypt the data.

This is too far in to the weeds though.

It is not beyond humanities ability to have a system as secure as ADP while still providing a mechanism to access terrorists phones for example.