Much evidence during a criminal investigation is under the control of the alleged suspect. This is why the police need to get a search warrant.
For instance, they may believe that there are illegal drugs in someone’s home, but they can’t enter without consent or a search warrant. They may think that there is evidence of criminal activity stored on the person’s phone, but they need a search warrant in order to open the device.
But not all evidence is going to be controlled by the suspect. Some of it may be out of their hands, which changes the way that police investigators can obtain it.
Search warrants and social media
One example of this involves digital evidence from social media. People often use social media apps to send pictures, videos and text messages. The police may believe that these digital files or messages contain evidence pertaining to their investigation, so they want to get them from the person’s device.
However, if the person doesn’t consent, the police may get a search warrant and serve it to the tech company. Many of these companies use cloud servers, meaning that there are secondary records of things like text messages or email messages. These exist independently of the device, so it isn’t necessary to access them.
An example of this could be if Facebook turned over direct messages between two individuals who were accused of a crime. The police may never open that person’s phone or tablet, but they can still read the messages.
Of course, a warrant is still required in this situation and the police must do everything properly. Those who are facing criminal charges need to know about all of their legal options.
