Overview
The Washington Post quoted Jason Weinstein in a March 22 article titled “Court Asks: Do Police Need a Warrant to Track Your Cellphone for Months at a Time?” The article discusses whether investigators need a search warrant before they can track suspects’ long-term movements through their cellphones. Investigators in Maryland pulled seven months of phone records to track the movements of two men later convicted in armed robberies around Baltimore. Law enforcement officials have long relied on location details gleaned from cellphone towers as a powerful tool for tracing steps of suspects, but civil liberties groups and privacy advocates are increasingly challenging the practice.
Mr. Weinstein, who used to run the violent crimes unit at the US attorney’s office in Baltimore, says: “There is a sense that judges and others have that electronic evidence [collection] presents a risk to privacy that other forms of evidence don’t. That anxiety is a thread through these court decisions.”
The full article can be read at The Washington Post.
