Cell Phones Aid Police, Lawyers
Law enforcement officials are increasingly turning to cell phone records as a means of tracking the movements of suspects and solving crimes. Cell phones can be traced by triangulating signals from multiple ground towers or through GPS satellites.
With cell phones having become as commonplace as a wallet and keys, Colleen Luna, St. Paul Police’s senior commander of its homicide and evidence units, said, “We search cell phones on all homicides.”
E-911, the government mandate which requires cell phone companies to produce phones that transmit their position in the event of an emergency, allows a 911 operator to track the user of a phone to within 300 feet.
Cell phone companies are quick to aid law enforcement officials, though they prefer to do so quietly. To date, the Supreme Court has not heard a privacy-based challenge to the legality of law enforcement officials and prosecutors obtaining cell phone records with a warrant.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from the Saint Paul Pioneer Press (MN) (08/11/05) P. 1A; Prather, Shannon .
