spoon059 wrote:
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.
I think I plainly mentioned a search warrant. It is purely an administrative decision of the cell phone carrier whether to provide cell phone records with a warrant or subpoena. They are private, for profit entities, and are not bound by Constitutional mandates. There is no law, to my knowledge, that makes releasing the records criminal. From a legal position, a company would be very foolish releasing records unless compelled to do so by a subpoena or warrant because to do so without that legal protection would open them up to legal liabilities.
