Everywhere you look, you find alarmist clickbait about how smartphones are a danger to public morality. Much of it has little basis in reality. Smartphones have not changed human nature; they have just created a record of it, one that is admissible in court under some circumstances. In the 19th century, certain physicians and religious thinkers in the United States advocated vegetarian diets as a cure for wrath, lust, sloth, and a host of other unsavory qualities that have been part of the human condition since time immemorial, the most lasting result of this movement is that a large percentage of Americans eat cereal for breakfast. Taking away smartphones will not stop humans from being human any more than replacing their breakfast sausage links with granola will. If given the opportunity, your smartphone would be able to snitch on you about every uncharitable, dishonest, or illegal thing you have ever done since the invention of smartphones. The good news is that the law prevents it from doing so in most circumstances.
The best way to find out whether police were within their rights to collect the evidence they obtained from your smartphone is to contact a Texas criminal defense lawyer.
Riley v. California Limits the Right of Police to Go Through Your Phone Without a Warrant
Traffic stops have long represented a gray area in Fourth Amendment rights. Ordinarily, police do not have the right to search your personal property unless they have obtained a search warrant by persuading a judge that there is probable cause for a search. Probable cause means that the police reasonably believe that, by searching a particular item of property, they will find evidence that links the owner of the property to a specific crime. At a traffic stop, the definition of probable cause is the same, but police may use their own discretion to determine whether there is probable cause to search the vehicle. Drivers may withhold consent for the search.
Where do smartphones come in? In the Riley v. California decision of 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the contents of smartphones are not ordinary vehicle contents. If police look through someone’s phone, they will find out a lot more than whether the person has a prescription for the Xanax pills in the center console. Therefore, the court ruled that, even at a traffic stop, police cannot go through someone’s phone. They may look at what is visible on the screen. If the lock screen shows that you got a What’s App message from someone called LeanQueen504, saying, “How did u finish it so fast?” they might use this as evidence that you have been buying promethazine cough syrup illegally. They cannot, however, open apps or scroll through volumes of text messages. The traffic stop can give them a reason to request a search warrant, but it cannot replace the search warrant.
Contact the Law Office of Patrick J. McLain, PLLC About Criminal Defense Cases
A Dallas criminal defense lawyer can help you if you are facing criminal charges after police found potentially incriminating evidence on your phone at a traffic stop. Contact the Law Office of Patrick J. McLain, PLLC, in Dallas, Texas, to discuss your case.