Most people don’t think about the fact that when they use their cell phone, it is not exactly private communication. If someone calls a friend to buy a little weed, do they think about the fact that this conversation could be monitored?

Then there’s the host of other data stored by your service provider that tracks where you’ve been and at what time and date. Your phone can even be activated to record you without your knowledge.  Police can monitor your conversations not only when you’re on the phone, but when it’s laying on a table between you and your friend.

That’s why if police ask them to come down to the station “just to talk,” don’t  bring your cell phone.  First, the police don’t ever want to “just talk,” they want to make an arrest.  Next, they’ll seize the cell phone and have easy entry into everything about the owner.  Calls might reveal ties to other suspects and a treasure trove of connections detailing where the suspect’s been over prior months. That could potentially kill any alibi.

Through cell tower triangulation, your service provider records where you’ve been at every given moment. Cell towers are everywhere. The more urban the area, the more towers.  Your cell phone pings from tower to tower as you drive or walk through neighborhoods, pinpointing to a degree determined by the spacing between towers, your location.  These records are kept by your provider and will be provided to police if they ask.

The legal question had been what form did the police “ask” have to take.  Could it be a simple request from law enforcement, or did it have to come in the form of a search warrant signed by a judge and based on a showing that probable cause existed to believe the person’s whose records were being sought was involved in criminal activity? This is the highest standard our law requires

To the surprise of many, the largely conservative Supreme Court decided last week in a 5-to-4 vote that a warrant was needed in order to obtain cell tower records.

In U.S. v. Carpenter, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that cell phone privacy issues affect everyone, not just people suspected of crimes.

Alexander Truluck focuses his practice as a criminal defense attorney in Clearwater, Palm Harbor, Largo, Dunedin and the Tampa Bay area.

For more information, visit our website at http://www.criminallawyerclearwaterflorida.com
or call (727) 799-3550.