Smartphone Searches And The Fourth Amendment

Things can quickly go from mildly annoying to disastrous at traffic stops.  One minute you make an illegal turn, and the next thing you know, police K9s are pointing at your pills that you thought were Xanax, but now the crime lab is saying that they were fentanyl, and all because a cop insisted that your car smelled like weed.  At least they can’t go through your phone and also find out that you continued exchanging messages with a girl you met at a party last month, even after you found out that she is only 16, or can they?  Just as the invention of the automobile complicated the rules about places that police can search without a warrant, smartphones have made things even more complicated.  Several years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision regarding what the police have the right to search on your smartphone and under what circumstances.  If you got arrested at a traffic stop, and the state plans to use evidence from your smartphone against you, contact a West Palm Beach criminal defense lawyer.

Riley v. California Protects Your Doom Scrolling Habits From Searches at Traffic Stops

Police cannot search your property without a warrant, except when they can.  When conducting a traffic stop, police have the right to search the vehicle if they determine that there is probable cause for a search; the rationale is that your car is out there on the road in plain sight, so the same standard of privacy does not apply as it would if police wanted to search your house.  Of course, the average smartphone contains as much incriminating evidence as most people’s entire houses do.  If you own a smartphone, it is like having a crack house in your pocket, except perhaps replacing crack with whatever other illegal activity you are into.

Riley v. California is a Supreme Court decision issued in 2014.  In the Riley decision, the Court ruled that, when conducting a search for probable cause at a traffic stop, police may only look at what is visible on the screen of your smartphone.  In other words, if the open screen of your phone shows you exchanging messages related to extortion, money laundering, solicitation of a minor, drug trafficking or any other crime, police may use this as evidence against you.  If they want to go through every app and every chat conversation, they will need a warrant, just as if they wanted to search your house.  As it stands, evidence obtained from smartphones is often the evidence that determines the outcomes of criminal cases involving drug trafficking, financial crimes, and Internet sex crimes, but police must get a warrant to search a person’s personal electronic devices, including smartphones.

Contact a West Palm Beach Criminal Defense Lawyer Today

Attorney William Wallshein has more than 38 years of experience, including five years as a prosecutor in Palm Beach County.  Contact William Wallshein P.A. in West Palm Beach, Florida to discuss your case.

Source:

supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/573/373/