We live in a day and age in which our cell phones have a wealth of information about us, which is not only extremely personal but also is extremely detailed and accurate. Indeed, that information in the hands of someone that we have no desire for them to be able to access that information is something that most people not only deeply desire to avoid but definitely don’t want to have happen to them.
The Fourth Amendment to our Constitution stipulates that the general public is protected against unreasonable searches and seizures, subject to various exceptions, such as voluntarily granting law enforcement the right to look at our phone as well as exigent circumstances. When it comes to exigent circumstances, this typically seems to be something that is subject to interpretation, and regrettably, such interpretation has a strong tendency to favor law enforcement’s perspective.
For those who are subject to an arrest, there is a strong tendency for people to desire to conform to what law enforcement desires from them, because they believe that not doing so will probably make the situation worse. This, quite obviously is not a good position to be in, and in consideration that law enforcement is capable of saying just about anything in order to access what they desire to access, or to know what they want to know, granting such access to one’s cell phone is more times than not, isn’t going to be enough to get back one’s freedom, though it does depend upon the circumstances, while also depending upon the overall projection of what law enforcement believes about you, in which, the more that law enforcement sees you as an upstanding citizen or somebody of value or worth, the better the chances are that things will work out favorably or tolerably well for you.
While there are all sorts of laws meant to protect individuals from the law being arbitrarily enforced upon them, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the law as exercised is going to be faithful to the protections that people are supposed to have. Further to the point, once a person is arrested, and their cell phone is no longer in their control, it’s problematic as to whether a warrant will be issued to search that phone or whether that phone might just be searched without that warrant, because law enforcement has a lot of robust tools that can perform that very thing, without the subject ever really knowing about it.
In short, for all those that have cell phones one needs to take into fair consideration as to whether or not, what is on that phone, might be problematic, from a law obedience perspective, and if it is questionable, then it would probably behoove that person to clean up their cell phone, because today’s cell phones with their wealth of detailed information, are the pathway to figuring out who and what we are, and for those that have something in which, prudence itself, states that they would be better off if this was not contained on their cell phone, should remove such, posthaste.