Tracking suspects through cell phones

A federal judge has ruled that law enforcement needs to show probable cause before getting permission to track a suspect through his cell phone.

This is interesting because Judge Terrence McVerry of Pennsylvania is the first U.S. District judge to make this ruling; but nobody at the district court level had done it before. (The Post reports that two district court judges have ruled that probable cause is not necessary, though.)

The issue here is that prosecutors are asking judges for orders directing phone companies to hand over records showing what calls a suspect made and what cell phone tower he was closest to when he made them. The cell site data can give law enforcement a pretty good idea of where the suspect was at the time, give or take a few hundred feet (say privacy advocates) or yards (say prosecutors).

The question is whether the feds need to show probable cause or just articulable, reasonable belief that information is relevant to an ongoing investigation, a lower standard.

I missed this story when it ran in the Washington Post and elsewhere Friday; thanks to the ABA Journal for linking to it.

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