Can You Search a Cell Phone Incident to Arrest?

This post is only offered as a discussion topic only and does not represent legal advice. Officers must refer to the laws in their own State as well as their agency's policies, which can be more restrictive on officers that the law requires.

Scenario: While working patrol, a Police officer arrests a man for weapons violations and search his pockets incident to arrest. While doing this, the officer discovers a cellular phone.

Can the officer look through the contents of the phone as part of their search incident to arrest?

Answer: The United States Supreme Court Case Riley v. California from 2014 dealt with this issue. In this case, the US Supreme Court held that "The Police generally may not, without a warrant, search digital information on a cell phone seized from an individual who has been arrested."

They further explained, "It is true that this decision will have some impact on the ability of law enforcement to combat crime. But the Court's holding is not that the information on a cell phone is immune from search; it is that a warrant is generally required before a search. The warrant requirement is an important component of the Court's Fourth Amendment jurisprudence, and warrants may be obtained with increasing efficiency. In addition, although the search incident to arrest exception does not apply to cell phone, the continued availability of the exigent circumstances exception may give law enforcement a justification for a warrantless search in particular cases."

Some examples of exigent circumstances to search a phone that they gave were a child abductor who was arrested and may have information about the location of a child, to assist persons who are injured, or any other emergency that would justify a warrantless search. But, such circumstances are exceedingly rare.

The court ended by saying, "Our answer to the question of what police must do before searching a cell phone seized incident to arrest is accordingly simple - get a warrant."

This blog topic serves as a summary of our video lesson on this crucial topic. If you're interested in accessing the full video lesson and additional resources, click the link to register for your free 30-day trial.