It’s something police departments don’t really like to talk about, because they know it will garner serious backlash and could spur tighter restrictions. It’s the use of cell phones to track people and gain intelligence, often without a warrant or court approval.
Everyone carries a tracking device with them now days in the form of a cell phone. These phones have proven very useful in criminal investigations as they not only send signals to cell towers, indicating where you are, but they can contain crucial information in text messages, internet activity, emails, and the like. But how police gain access to this information varies from department to department.
According to the N.Y. Times, most police agencies contact cell phone carriers when they want to track a person using their mobile device. The company may or may not release that information; some require the requesting department get court approval first. Others simply charge a hefty fee for the services.
There are few safeguards in place to ensure the rights of the people being tracked are respected, largely because your rights as a cell phone user have not been concretely established in the courts.
Recently, the Supreme Court ruled that the police must obtain a warrant when attaching a GPS device to your car, and when they track your cell phone, they often use GPS technology. But, sometimes they don’t. And the complexities of the technology and your rights are what keep police in the gray area, where warrantless tracking via cell phone is not explicitly prohibited.
This is likely why police are told to keep such matters quiet, because bringing attention to the matter would no doubt bring criticism and a subsequent tightening of what is now a pretty free system.
The Times reports on the vast differences from states to state, pointing out that in California, the state prosecutors’ officer advised departments to get phone carriers to clone a phone so that information like text messages could be downloaded.
In many states, law enforcement have used cell phone information from providers to determine, through cell tower usage, where you are when you make a call, or to “identify all the callers using a particular tower.”
In small town Gilbert, Arizona, and in other cities, the department opted to bypass the cell phone providers and purchase tracking equipment on their own.
Make no mistake about it, the police don’t want the public knowing how widespread these practices are, “Do not mention to the public or the media the use of cellphone technology or equipment used to locate the targeted subject,” says the training manual of one police department, also mandating that cell phone tracking should be left out of police reports.
It seems that along the reasoning of the SCOTUS GPS case that law enforcement would be required to have a warrant for cell phone tracking, but apparently law enforcement agencies will need a case that is specific to cell phones before they change their constitutionally questionable practices.
The data gathered from a cell phone could be used against you in court. If it is, there’s a good chance your attorney could challenge the constitutionality of the seizure of this evidence or data. Discussing your case with a local defense lawyer will help you understand the laws surrounding evidence, searches and seizures, and what can be done in regards to your particular case.
About David Matson