Originally Posted by
VelvetJones
Technically this isn't the same thing. The California ruling involved people already arrested. In the Michigan case they were scanning phones of people pulled over for simple traffic stops. Wrong in both cases, but Michigan was taking a big leap on this one. Like the TSA, they've apparently given up on even pretending to act in a constitutional manner.
Living in MI, the local geeks jumped all over this. Where we're at:
Best guess is that there's 5 units in the state, all in forensics labs. So the phone would have to be confiscated, which presumably would required a criminal act to have occured, and a criminal search to occur (
for confiscating the phone). Nothing saying that a unit can't go mobile, and used in the field, yet not sure how that would work (
legally).
The one bugger is, having grown up in FL, it was always explained to me that when you are pulled over and ticketed, you have
technically been arrested, released on your OR, and the ticket is your bail bond. Signing the ticket isn't admitting guilt, it's agreeing that you'll answer to the ticket (
pay, go to court and plead/fight, etc). It's the time between when the ticket is written, and you've signed it... are you still under arrest, and now a criminal search can be performed?
Yet, by all means... these things need to be brought out into the sunshine, and people need to know the search and seizure risks that exist for all forms of law enforcement (
including the TSA, which has a law enforcement arm, and also works with LEOs at the airport).