Search Warrants Required Before Police Can Search Cell Phone Contents

The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that police officers would be required to obtain a search warrant before searching the contents of the person’s cell phone. The ruling will have a dramatic effect on law enforcement and will force police officers to develop probable cause evidence that is sufficient enough for a judge to approve prior any searches of cell phone contents.

It had been common police to take the  cell phone of an arrested person and then view the contents. The police often found very incriminating evidence on cell phones in the form of text messages, emails, photographs, videos, and recordings. That particular tactic will now change.

The ruling could have a dramatic effect on pending criminal cases in which the police obtained incriminating evidence from a defendant’s cell phone. Experienced Texas criminal attorney’s will use the opinion to negotiate better pleas for their clients or seek rulings to have cell phone evidence suppressed.