Police need warrant to ping cell phones, Kentucky appeals court rules - WDRB

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled Friday that police must get a warrant from a judge before using a person's real-time cell phone data to track them down, saying the issue raises "significant, legitimate privacy concerns."

The ruling is the first of its kind by an appellate court in Kentucky even though there have been numerous cases where police used cell phone locations from carriers to track suspects without first obtaining warrants.

"We hold that individuals have a reasonable expectation of privacy," Judge Denise Clayton wrote, "and, consequently, the acquisition of such data by the police constitutes a search triggering the protections of the Fourth Amendment."

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that police must get a warrant to obtain "historic" cell phone data, but left unresolved whether officers can get immediate information -- a process known as "pinging" -- to find a suspect on the run.

Many other states, such as Indiana, have already ruled that police must get a warrant before obtaining such information. The issue has come before several Kentucky circuit and district court judges but had not been ruled on by an appellate court until Friday.

For example, in 2015 Louisville police tracked down the phone numbers for two suspects accused of murdering a Canadian tourist as he returned to his hotel on Kentucky Derby Day and located them through GPS coordinates from the cell provider.

Prosecutors and police said the group was in the middle of a violent crime spree involving Tasers and guns while cruising around in a luxury car and there was no time to obtain a warrant. Defense attorneys argued police failed to properly obtain a warrant from a judge prior to seeking the phone "ping" information, violating the group's Fourth Amendment right to privacy. A Jefferson Circuit Court judge ruled on the issue, but it was not appealed.

The unanimous ruling Friday from the three-member panel revolved around a 2017 case from Woodford County in which a Versailles police officer tracked down a man accused of armed robbery and stealing a car by using his cell phone data.

The officer obtained Dovontia Reed's phone number from the victim and worked with the cell phone carrier to track his location through GPS coordinates.

Reed pleaded guilty to robbery charges after his request to suppress the evidence based on the use of the cell phone search was denied by a Woodford Circuit Court judge. Reed was sentenced to seven years in prison.

The Kentucky appeals court ruled that because "pinging a cell phone enables the police almost instantaneously to track individuals far beyond the public thoroughfare into areas where they would have a reasonable, legitimate expectation of privacy," a warrant is required.

However, the court also pointed out there is an exception to the warrant requirement if police can make a "compelling" case that the circumstances justify immediate action, such as a "hot pursuit."

And this case, in which an armed robbery was alleged, may have justified "the warrantless pinging" of Reed's cell phone, but prosecutors did not raise the argument, according to the ruling.

Prosecutors instead argued that police were protected by the "good faith" exception to the warrant requirement, meaning the officer believed it was necessary to act before obtaining a warrant.

The appeals court found the circumstances of Reed's case do not support the "good faith" exception, as argued, and the judge's ruling in the suppression hearing has been overturned. The case has been sent back to Woodford Circuit Court.

2020-02-07 19:12:00Z
https://www.wdrb.com/in-depth/police-need-warrant-to-ping-cell-phones-kentucky-appeals-court/article_c5e64440-49d5-11ea-b742-3b85b1847bc3.html