A court case involving an illegal cell phone seizure by a police officer in Rhode Island has been in the news recently and it could have a direct effect on all of us. In 2009, a man was living with his girlfriend and her six year old son when the boy was knocked unconscious by the man while they were, and I am quoting, horsing around. Paramedics were called and a policeman also came into the house. The policeman picked up the man’s beeping cell phone and there was a text message from the mother of boy that incriminated the man for actually beating the child. The six year old died. The man went to jail and the court reversed the ruling in late 2012 saying the police officer made an illegal search. The judge said all the evidence collected due to the text messages was now tainted and unusable. The man remains in jail at this time but his attorney is trying to get him out arguing there is no evidence left against his client. It is a mess. The latest figures from cell phone carriers for the year 2011 showed the carriers responded to 1.3 million demands from law enforcement agencies for text messages and other information regarding subscribers. In 1986, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act went into law. The act states you need a search warrant from a judge and authorities must me a high standard of showing probable cause. A senate panel is involved now to overhaul the privacy act. I guess the question for all of us is how much control should police have? I don’t want bad guys out of jail but I sure don’t like the way the cop grabbed the cell phone. What do you think?Cell Phone Privacy