Court OKs searches of cell phones without warrant

[Bones]

Court OKs searches of cell phones without warrant

The California Supreme Court allowed police Monday to search arrestees' cell phones without a warrant, saying defendants lose their privacy rights for any items they're carrying when taken into custody.

Under U.S. Supreme Court precedents, "this loss of privacy allows police not only to seize anything of importance they find on the arrestee's body ... but also to open and examine what they find," the state court said in a 5-2 ruling.

 

[bigrebnc1775]

Court OKs searches of cell phones without warrant

The California Supreme Court allowed police Monday to search arrestees' cell phones without a warrant, saying defendants lose their privacy rights for any items they're carrying when taken into custody.

Under U.S. Supreme Court precedents, "this loss of privacy allows police not only to seize anything of importance they find on the arrestee's body ... but also to open and examine what they find," the state court said in a 5-2 ruling.

They failed to mention that if you are an illegal this does not apply to you, nor does the arrest.

 

[George Costanza]

Makes sense to me. Police are entitled to search the person of someone they have lawfully arrested. They can (and do) go into an arrestee's pockets and added charges can be made if they find drugs. Looks like the Cal Supremes are including cell phones and their contents in this allowed area of search.

I think people DO have an expectation of privacy in the contents of their cell phones, but they also have an expectation of privacy as to the contents of their pockets. Once legally under arrest - game over.

Side note - this post coming to you via my Merry Christmas iPad!!! My first post made using the new toy. I love it!

 

[Madeline]

If you have locked your phone, can they force the code out of you?

 

[uscitizen]

The phone can be unlocked without your code.

Maybe it is time to put my erase all if no cioded entry app on the market.

I call it Reagan.