Sorry cops. You can't search cell phones without a warrant

Started by AllPurposeAtheist, June 25, 2014, 01:04:49 PM

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AllPurposeAtheist

This is bigger news than you might think.. Now you CAN take video of cops abusing powers and before they can confiscate it they need a judge to agree..
QuoteWASHINGTON â€"- Cellphones and smartphones generally cannot be searched by police without a warrant during arrests, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously Wednesday in a major victory for privacy rights.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/06/25/supreme-court-cellphone-search-privacy-arrest/10025923/]
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Solitary

Lets see how well that works in reality. Cops always assume you are guilty if they stop you, and if you are a witness with a camera taking pictures of their abuse, they will say you are interfering with the arrest and put you in hand cuffs for your protection. Officer Bubba: "Oh! The cell phone accidently dropped when we put the cuffs on and got smashed your Honor" Solitary
There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.

AllPurposeAtheist

I'm sure that's going to happen, but when enough people sue the shit out of them for it they'll have to rethink that tactic.
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The Skeletal Atheist

Quote from: Solitary on June 25, 2014, 01:40:20 PM
Lets see how well that works in reality. Cops always assume you are guilty if they stop you, and if you are a witness with a camera taking pictures of their abuse, they will say you are interfering with the arrest and put you in hand cuffs for your protection. Officer Bubba: "Oh! The cell phone accidently dropped when we put the cuffs on and got smashed your Honor" Solitary
That is why computer forensics exist. If it's too messed up for a forensic scientist to get information out of it, then that would cast some serious doubt on the phone being dropped theory. That being said, it would take the defendent knowing of such and asking for an examination of the phone, or possibly paying a private lab to examine it since the prosecution damn sure won't do it unless forced to.
Some people need to be beaten with a smart stick.

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Kein Mitlied F�r Die Mehrheit!

Berati

I've seen a video of the cops taking someones cell phone. lol. There's too many out there now to stop the filming.

Having said that, often the cops like the cameras as they help them from unwarranted accusations more often than you might think.
Google the phrase "Police to wear cameras" and you'll see many police forces that are or will be having their officers wear cameras all the time. Cameras are getting smaller and cheaper and are here to stay.
Keep that in mind since all of us will be on camera most of the time very soon.
Check this out for a good laugh about being filmed everywhere:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3_3oeDX1uk
Carl Sagan
"It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring."

AllPurposeAtheist

Here's why this ruling is important. (Just a few examples)
Suppose you're walking along and the police decide you've been jaywalking.. Whatever. Upon examining your person they come across your cell phone and find you frequent AF and the cop hates atheists, but also learns you're gay or at least support the rights of gay people. Cop also hates gay people, but he keeps poking around your phone and learns you received a call from a known fugitive from justice and gave that person directions to your house not knowing he's a fugitive. Now you're guilty of aiding and abetting the fugitive. But he ALSO discovered that you inadvertently clicked on a link to BOMB MAKING instructions! So now in that cop's mind your a faggy atheist, criminal abetting TERRORIST!
YOU BASTARD! Off to the clink for your ass.
OK, maybe that's not a good example. :lol:
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Poison Tree

Quote from: AllPurposeAtheist on June 26, 2014, 03:15:40 PM
OK, maybe that's not a good example. :lol:
It is not a terrible example; too many hypothetical stacked together, but the underlying point holds. One of the police officers who testified (I'm unsure if he testified before the supreme court or when the case was in the lower courts, but I suspect that latter) said that when he searched a suspect's phone he had no idea what he would find--in other words, he was simply on a fishing expedition hoping to find anything to use against the guy. On the other hand, to get a warrant the police have to say what they are after and why there think it is there.

There are still issues that will need to be settled around this such as what constitutes "in plain sight" on a cell phone. To use an example from Dragnet, a cop with a warrant to look for a stolen piano doesn't have to ignore drugs left out on a counter, but can't seize drugs found in a drawer; inside the drawer wasn't in plain sight and he couldn't honestly have expected to find the piano inside. If the police have a warrant to look at my contact information on my phone, presumably, they could look at the icons/apps on the home page but could they swipe left and right to see what is on my phone?
"Observe that noses were made to wear spectacles; and so we have spectacles. Legs were visibly instituted to be breeched, and we have breeches" Voltaire�s Candide

AllPurposeAtheist

Presumably now police will need a warrant to swipe anything on your phone, plain sight or not. Presumably if you just used an ax to cut off someone's head and took video of it and when police arrive you just happen to be watching the deed on your cell phone there would be no need to swipe, but then again we're getting into egregious hypothetical situations.
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Solitary

There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.

Johan

Quote from: AllPurposeAtheist on June 25, 2014, 01:04:49 PM
This is bigger news than you might think.. Now you CAN take video of cops abusing powers and before they can confiscate it they need a judge to agree.. 
Yes and No. It is still explicitly against local law in some places (Illinois Massachusetts and Maryland) to photograph or record any on duty police officer. So in those places, I would expect that probable cause will allow an officer to search and/or confiscate any device they suspect you've used to break the law by photographing/video recording them. The only thing this ruling does is move your phone into the same category as your home or your car. They can't search it just because you never know what you might find. But if they've got probable cause, they can search anything they want anytime they want, no court order required. This ruling doesn't change that. So in the places where taking their picture is illegal, its still going to be illegal and you'll still get your shit taken from you if they want.
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false and by the rulers as useful

AllPurposeAtheist

Thanks to the states rights crowd we should be able to invalidate anything SCOTUS says or does then.. Right?
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Johan

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false and by the rulers as useful

AllPurposeAtheist

All hail my new signature!

Admit it. You're secretly green with envy.

shortbusgangsta

what happens if you get busted with underage porn but you weren't aware that they were underage?

Solitary

I just knew you were a pervert that has a fetish with different names, because you don't know who you really are from all the abuse you had in your life. I wish you the best in life, because you are going to need with your obsessions dodo. Solitary
There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.