Court approves warrantless searches of cell phones

[villager]

Source: Reuters

Court approves warrantless searches of cell phones

(Reuters) - Police can search a cell phone for its number without having a warrant, a federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday.

Officers in Indiana found a number of cell phones at the scene of a drug bust, and searched each phone for its telephone number. Having the numbers allowed the government to subpoena the owners' call histories, linking them to the drug-selling scheme.

One of the suspects, Abel Flores-Lopez, who was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison, argued on appeal that the police had no right to search the phone's contents without a warrant.
The U.S. Court of Appeal for the 7th Circuit rejected that argument, finding that the invasion of privacy was so slight that the police's actions did not violate the Fourth Amendment's ban on unreasonable searches.

The case gave the 7th Circuit an occasion to examine just how far police can go when it comes to searching electronic gadgets.

<snip>

Posner compared the cell phone to a diary. Just as police are entitled to open a pocket diary to copy an owner's address, they should be able to turn on a cell phone to learn its number, he wrote. But just as they're forbidden from examining love letters tucked between the pages of an address book, so are they forbidden from exploring letters in the files of a phone.

<snip>

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/court-approves-warrantless-searches-cell-phones-035719332.html;_ylt=A2KLJQNGbE9PZ3sAEQUC9nQA;_ylu=X3oDMTRvOWdwMzZiBGNjb2RlA2dtcHRvcD

[frazzled]

1. I've had to search a cell phone for its number

Several times.

Most recently (this past summer), we stepped out to walk to the supermarket and found a cell phone lying in the gutter in front of our building. It was an older phone, so we had trouble figuring out the address book even, and couldn't find a number or auto-dial for "home." So we decided to check recent calls and call someone from it. A fellow answered and we explained we'd found this phone. He interrupted us immediately: "That's my buddy's! He lost it this afternoon." Turns out he was a USPS worker at the post office down the street, so he walked over and got it for his buddy. Mission accomplished.

I see nothing wrong with police finding the owner's identity in the case of a crime scene where a phone has been left behind.

[Lasher]

3. I found a cell phone like that once.

I called a number just like you did. Some guy answered and said, "That's my wife's cell phone! Who is this?!!" I said, "This is the person who found her cell phone laying on the sidewalk. Now if you're real polite I just might give it to you."

He got a lot nicer after that. He was nearby in his vehicle talking on his cell phone, and I was able to locate him based on his instructions.

[nolabels]

2. Nixon and his war on drugs

The problem the establishment has is they have much more that they need to hide than any ordinary citizen. If they were smart they would discontinue the retail sales of pitchforks very soon

[saras]

4. I found one once too

By the time I found the number of the owner in the phone, I pretty much knew her entire lifestyle for the last month, the names and numbers of all her friends, what time of day or night they talk, and I COULD have known a lot more without leaving any record that I had wanted to. So yeah, just from that glance down the list I could tell who her dealers were, no problem.

But OF COURSE we trust the police to NEVER use this sort of information illegally, so we have no problem with them HAVING the information.

[truthisfreedom]

5. They wouldn't have to search the phones to find their numbers. Just call 911.