Essay Sample on Searches and Seizures Using Cell Phones

In this era, law enforcement agencies are more determined to use data from tech giant companies. The reason behind this developing trait is the ubiquitous information gathering by the companies' database. Personal data pertaining to what a person does, where he goes, what he uses, the kind of friends he interacts with, what they watch is being misused, and not the sort of arrangement the tech company and the client had when agreeing to use their devices. Privacy issues have risen among the users, as the law enforcement agencies, together with the tech companies, are scrutinized over the methods they use in breaching the users’ privacy.

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I do not believe it is right for police officers to use cell phone technology in tracking guys. One reason would be that despite there being a motive in trying to solve a case, many people's privacy rights are jeopardized. In a situation where the only supporting evidence to a crime is cell phone technology, then it poses a higher chance of convicting a person wrongly. An argument to this would be a situation where the owner of a car leaves their mobile device inside their vehicle. The vehicle is then stolen and used to commit a felony. The owner reports that their vehicle is stolen much later after the crime is already determined. Meanwhile, investigations are ongoing regarding the crime that was committed. If the law enforcement agencies decide to rely on cell phone technology, then the innocent owner will be charged with a crime they did not commit. The case will be to prove that he was not actually in the car, but his cell phone was.

There may be exceptional circumstances that police could be required to employ cell phone technology. When the police are conducting an arrest without a warrant, then the arrest ought to be lawful. If the criteria were met, the search would be legally valid. The second circumstance should be that the police must have a clear objective. The reason to conduct the search could be to protect the interests of the police, the public, as well as the accused and search to discover more evidence and finding other suspects. The third circumstance is if the case directly relates to what might be on the cell phone. The police could be determined to access recent communications from a suspected mobile phone number or emails sent or received within a week. Then they could be allowed to use the phone technology and reveal the mystery in the case.

One importance is they track victims, find out suspect's location timelines and compare it with their alibis. The mobile phones create some roadmap, and the suspects' movements can be traced accordingly. Cell phone technology assists enforcement agencies in gathering shreds of evidence from mobile devices such as searches to purchase items that were used to commit a crime. The technology could expose incriminating evidence that the suspect was trying to delete and hide. Cell phones are crucial in investigations, and just like other pieces of evidence, it must be trailed with the different parts of evidence. Additionally, criminals tend to be boastful and end up posting incriminating evidence on social platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, or Instagram. The posts are used in the proceedings of a criminal case. Videos showcasing guns and drugs or even successful loot put the suspects in prison.

Law enforcers are continuously using software that has been developed and equipped for the cracking of mobile phones and thus examines information to track people. Phone forensics is a practice that is steadily growing and being incorporated by police in solving crimes.