NCJ Number
203819
Journal
Law and Order Volume: 51 Issue: 12 Dated: December 2003 Pages: 38,40,42,44
Date Published
December 2003
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article discusses search-and-seizure legal issues pertinent to evidence obtained from a privately owned computer.
Abstract
The author advises that the fourth amendment's prohibition against "unreasonable" searches and seizures applies only to agents of the government. A private party cannot violate a suspect's fourth amendment rights unless acting at the direction of a government agency. If a private individual obtains evidence from another person's computer independent of police directions and then shares it with the police, then there is no fourth amendment violation. Police can then obtain a search warrant based on the information supplied by the private individual. A laptop or other computer that is found by police in a vehicle that has been seized would generally be viewed by the courts as a closed container that would require a warrant to view its contents. This article discusses exceptions that do not require a warrant to search a computer's contents, such as abandoned property (a computer diskette in a trash can); exigent circumstances (reasonable expectation that incriminating computer data is about to be destroyed); plain-view searches (observation of computer data by a law enforcement officer who is legally positioned to view it); and search incident to arrest (applies to pagers worn at time of arrest, but there is no case law on hand-held or laptop computer with a suspect at time of arrest). This article also discusses legal parameters for the seizure of digital evidence and the application of privacy laws to computer data.