Judge: Cell phone surveillance requires warrant

Gary Craig / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle | February 14 2006

A federal magistrate judge has rebuffed an attempt by federal authorities to trace the cell phone of a criminal suspect without obtaining a warrant.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Feldman ruled late Friday that federal prosecutors have wrongly interpreted federal statutes when they claim they can trace cell phones without first obtaining a warrant.

Prosecutors had sought to trail a suspect by tracing the individual's cell telephone. They argued that they would not be violating the individual's privacy because they would only obtain general information about the suspect's location.

But Feldman determined that federal statutes don't allow the warrantless surveillance. In his ruling he said he would agree to a warrant for the tracing if authorities could show "that there exists probable cause to believe that the data sought will yield evidence of a crime."

In recent months, federal magistrates across the country have refused similar requests from authorities. Prosecutors have said, however, that many magistrates also have agreed to allow the tracing.

Under the law, federal authorities can perform certain surveillance without a warrant. For instance, they don't need a warrant to secure an individual's phone records -- the numbers they called -- from any telephone.

However, a warrant, which requires some evidence of a crime, is needed for searches of an individual's property.

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