guidry wrote:
I'd be interested in how you were told the cop ran your phone number to see if you were on the phone. He would have to have a search warrant for that information. Unless laws have changed since I worked as a LEO, without permission, exigent circumstances or a warrant, he couldn't get that info. He would want your phone number for the report though. Please explain, we're curious now?
DownTheAvenue wrote:
There are many different cell phone carriers, and each carrier would have to be contacted separately to ascertain if the phone was active at the time of the crash, which, by the way, was not determined definitively. Then the issue of obtaining the cooperation of each carrier without any kind of a search warrant.
You are both wrong. You need a search warrant if you are attempting to access the drivers physical phone. You only need a subpoena to obtain cell phone records to determine incoming or outgoing phone calls and messages.
Either way, I find it almost impossible to believe that an officer is able to obtain that information on the side of the road. I am an investigator and subpoena call phone records all the time. We have a dedicated attorney in our office to request subpoenas... that still takes 15 minutes to type the request, have it reviewed and have it written up. Then after obtaining the signed subpoena, you have to submit the subpoena to the appropriate company (some accept fax, some accept email, some still require the original subpoena be mailed). The absolute fastest I have ever gotten a return was 24 hours later.
I don't see how that is happening on the side of the road. Even if the officer can get that information, what does it prove? If a text message was received, there is no evidence that the driver read it as soon as it was received. If a phone call was placed or received, how do you prove the vehicle didn't have legal handsfree equipment in place to facilitate a lawful telephone call?
There are far too many questions and it appears highly unlikely that the officer was doing anything other than gathering identifying information on drivers involved in a wreck.
