Abstract
With the help of technological advancements, law enforcement can now hijack a targeted individual’s cell phone to ping and track the phone’s exact location in real time. Based upon previous rulings, this new tracking process has apparently fallen into a "grey area" of Fourth Amendment jurisprudence. However, real-time cell phone tracking should be a search in terms of the Fourth Amendment and, therefore, require a warrant. Real-time cell phone tracking infringes on an individual’s reasonable expectation of privacy, violates the trespass doctrine as a trespass to chattels, and violates the Kyllo standard by using technology not in general public use to intrude into a constitutionally protected area.
Recommended Citation
Cal Cumpstone,
Game of Phones: The Fourth Amendment Implications of Real-Time Cell Phone Tracking,
65 Clev. St. L. Rev.
75
(2017)
available at https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/clevstlrev/vol65/iss1/9