警察没有搜查证能不能检查你的手机

    威瑞利还指出，从更基本的层面上看，当场搜查可能是警方绕过嫌疑人手机密保的唯一机会。他写道：“如果一名警员在拘捕现场发现一部已经解锁的手机，立即对这部手机进行搜查可能是他追回、保存重要证据的唯一机会。辩方针对这个严重问题也提出了他们的解决方案——比如给每个警员都配备笨拙的取证设备，而且这种设备每一部都价值好几千美元——可以说他们的方案完全不切实际。”

    在加州法院审理的大卫•赖利一案中，赖利是于2009年8月在驾车行驶的过程中被警方拦下的，原因是警察发现他的车子的牌照可能过期了。后来那名警员发现赖利的驾照已经被吊销了，于是他当场扣押了赖利的车子，同时要求清查车上物品。这名警员在清查过程中发现，车子的引擎盖下方绑着两支枪。于是他以涉嫌夹藏武器罪逮捕了赖利。

    这位警员在当场拘捕赖利、搜查其随身物品时从赖利的裤子口袋里搜出了一部三星SPH-M800 Instinct手机。在没有搜查证的情况下，该警员现场翻阅了这部手机里的通讯录和短信。结果他发现，一般应该以“K”开头的单词和姓名都被拼写成了以“CK”开头，该警员立即意识到它可能与一个叫做“Crip Killers”的黑帮有关，也就是所谓的“血帮”。

    两个小时后，另一名警员在警署对这部手机再次进行了搜查，这次搜查同样是在没有搜查证的情况下进行的。这名警员发现了更多与黑帮有关的证据，包括赖利与其他人做黑帮手势的照片，以及一些打“街拳”的视频（“街拳”是有些帮派的一种入会仪式）。在这些视频中，可以听到赖利在喊“揍他，兄弟”之类的话。更重要的是，在手机的几张截图里不仅出现了赖利和另两名帮派分子，背景中还出现一辆红色的奥兹莫比尔轿车。这辆车卷入了两周前的一场涉黑枪击事件，但它当时从现场逃逸了。后来警方对从赖利车子引擎盖下方搜出的两支枪进行了弹道检测，发现它们就是枪击案当天在现场开火的枪支。赖利因此被法院判处谋杀未遂罪，而且在手机的视频与截图的铁证面前，这起枪击案被证实与其他黑帮行径有关，赖利的刑期也从最高七年上升到最低15年乃至终身监禁。

    联邦法院审理的布里马•武里一案的破获也涉及警方在无搜查证的情况下搜查嫌疑人手机的行为。武里是在2007年9月被捕的，他的手机在法庭笔录中被记录为一部“威瑞森LG手机”。武里之所以被警方拘捕，是因为有人看见他在自己的车子外头贩卖毒品。警方搜查武里的手机后发现，他的通话记录中频繁出现一个标记为“我的家”的电话号码，这个号码的头像是武里同伙的照片，而这张照片同时也是武里的手机背景照片。就这样警方顺藤摸瓜地查到了武里的家——如果不是提前搜查了武里的手机的话，他肯定不会把这个信息透露给警方。警方在获得搜查证后突袭了武里的住宅，缴获了可卡因、现金、枪支弹药等涉案证物。

    在本周二辩论的两起案件中，唯一直接涉案的设备就是手机。由于这两起案件嫌疑人的拘捕分别发生在2007年和2009年，当时的手机在先进性上还无法与如今的主流手机媲美。

    但是各方都清楚，这两起案件的审理对将来警方能否搜查、如何搜查嫌疑人的随身设备（比如笔记本电脑、平板电脑、U盘甚至是谷歌眼镜、智能手表等可穿戴设备）将产生重大影响。

    虽然执法部门很可能仍然想继续保留在无搜查证的情况下搜查嫌疑人手机的权力，但科技的进步似乎已经使警方的理由站不住脚了。（财富中文网）

    译者：朴成奎

    At a more basic level, an immediate search may simply be the officer's only opportunity to circumvent password protections, Verrilli argues. "When an officer finds an unlocked cell phone at the scene of an arrest, searching it immediately may be her only chance to retrieve and preserve essential evidence," he writes. "[The defendants'] proposed solutions to that serious problem -- such as equipping every officer with unwieldy forensic devices that cost several thousand dollars each -- are entirely unrealistic."

    In the California case, David Riley was pulled over in San Diego in August 2009 for expired license plate tags. When the arresting officer discovered that Riley's license was suspended, he started to impound the car, requiring him to inventory its contents. In the course of doing that, he found two guns strapped under the hood. He then placed Riley under arrest for possessing concealed weapons.

    While conducting a search incident to the arrest, the officer took a cellphone, a Samsung SPH-M800 Instinct, from Riley's pants pocket. Without a warrant he began scrolling through Riley's contacts and text messages. He saw that words and names that would ordinarily start with a "K" were spelled with a "CK," which he recognized as a possible gang-related reference to "Crip Killers," i.e., "Bloods."

    Two hours later, during a second warrantless search of the phone at the police station, a second officer found more gang-related evidence, including stills of Riley and others making gang related hand signals, and videos of "street boxing" -- a gang initiation rite -- at which Riley could be heard saying things like, "Get him, Blood." More important, there were photos of Riley and two associates with a red Oldsmobile in the background, a car believed to have served as a getaway car to a gang-related shooting two weeks earlier. Ballistics tests on the guns found under Riley's hood later linked them to the shooting. Riley was charged with, and convicted of, attempted murder, and the fact the shooting had allegedly further gang-related activity -- as proven by videos and stills found on his cellphone -- was used to enhance his sentence from a seven-year maximum to a mandatory minimum term of 15 years to life.

    The federal case, concerning the September 2007 arrest of Brima Wurie, involved a more limited search of a phone, which is identified in the record only as a "Verizon LG." Wurie was arrested after he was observed apparently selling drugs out of his car. Using clues obtained from a search of Wurie's phone -- mainly the fact that his phone log showed frequent calls from a number labeled "my house," together with a photo of Wurie's companion, which served as his phone's screen "wallpaper" -- the officers tracked down Wurie's residence, which he had otherwise refused to reveal to the officers. After getting a search warrant for that residence, officers seized crack cocaine, cash, a firearm, and ammunition.

    Cellphones are the only devices directly involved in the two cases being argued Tuesday, and since the arrests occurred back in 2007 and 2009, the phones are not particularly advanced compared to what are prevalent today.

    Nevertheless, all parties recognize that the cases will shed light on seizures of any device that can be found on someone's person, including tablets, laptops, thumbdrives, and, in the future, Google Glass, say, a smartwatch, or any other wearable computer device.

    Although law enforcement would understandably like to keep the historical rule inviolate, the advance of technology seems to have rendered that option untenable.