According to the Supreme Court of Canada law enforcement does not require a warrant to perform a cell phone search in most cases, as long as strict rules set down by the court are followed. In addition to the strict guidelines given the cell phone search is limited in scope until a search warrant is received by the law enforcement officers. The decision by the court was split, 4 to 3, and it is the first time that the privacy of mobile phones has been addressed by the court. According to the court’s decision the search of the mobile phone must be indirect relation to the circumstances of the specific arrest, and detailed records of each search must be kept by law enforcement officers.
The decision by the Supreme Court of Canada sides with law enforcement in most respects when it comes to a cell phone search performed before a warrant is given. The case was brought as an appeal by Kevin Fearon, who was convicted of armed robbery in 2009 after police recovered evidence during a cell phone search without a warrant. According to Justice Thomas Cromwell, one of the majority justices on the decision, “The police simply did something that they believed on reasonable grounds to be lawful and were proven wrong, after the fact, by developments in the jurisprudence.” The 3 judges who disagreed with the majority decision stated that a search warrant should be required except in very rare and limited circumstances that involve danger to law enforcement or the public, or if the evidence to be recovered during a cell phone search could be deleted while waiting for a warrant.
