Washington: A police officer in Florida has threatened to arrest Apple CEO Tim Cook over the iPhone case related to the San Bernardino shooting, a media report said on Sunday.

"I can tell you, the first time we do have trouble getting into a cellphone, we're going to seek a court order from Apple. And when they deny us, I'm going to go lock the CEO of Apple up," Sheriff Grady Judd of Polk County said.

Judd was responding to a reporter about the dispute over San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone. "I'll lock the rascal up," newsweek.com quoted him as saying.

Police have often struggled with their investigations because of encrypted smartphones they cannot crack.

In its response to a court order that it cooperate with the FBI in opening the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone, Apple said the FBI promised the decryption would be a one-time exception but any other requests to decrypt iPhones in future would breach that promise, Newsweek has revealed.