Can police search your cell phone during a traffic stop in NC? What to know
If you get pulled over, police can ask to see your driver’s license, vehicle registration and proof of car insurance.
But can they also ask to see your cell phone during a traffic stop?
In North Carolina, officers do not have the right to go through your phone unless you give them permission or if they have a search warrant.
“We can’t just, on a routine traffic stop, take your cell phone out of your car and start going through it or require you to open it for us,” Christopher Casey, a master trooper with N.C. State Highway Patrol, told The Charlotte Observer.
“But if we believe it’s being used as a commission for a crime as far as trafficking drugs or something of that nature, and we can articulate that, yes we can seize the cell phone and apply for a search warrant.”
Even though officers would be able to seize your phone during a traffic stop, Casey explained that a search warrant would be required to actually see any messages, calls or other information because a cell phone is considered personal property.
What constitutes consent for a search in NC?
But this has also raised questions about what is considered consent regarding a cell phone.
[RELATED: Do you know what to do when interacting with police? These are your rights in NC]
“If a suspect says ‘sure, you can search’ or signs a consent to search form, it is obvious that he or she has consented to the officer searching the phone,” Jeff Wetly, a public law and government professor at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said in a recent blog post. “But if the suspect silently hands the phone to the officer, is that consent, mere acquiescence, or something else? The Fifth Circuit held that it was consent.”
But Wetly says you do have the right to ask for it back even after you give permission.
“The scope of a consent search is completely within the control of the person granting consent, who may limit his or her consent in any way that he or she pleases and may revoke consent at any time,” Wetly explained. “However, a court attempting to determine the scope of consent does not ask what the person granting consent subjectively intended to allow.”
Ultimately, Wetly explained that courts have been sensitive to the specific facts of cases depending on the circumstances.
“Officers can reduce the risk of having evidence suppressed by asking for consent as clearly as possible… they may wish to ask explicitly for consent to conduct a forensic examination, to answer a call, or to take other steps beyond a manual inspection of a device,” Wetly says. “An officer could potentially proceed in stages, asking ‘Can I look at your phone?’ as a starting place, and later seeking consent for more detailed inspections.”
This story was originally published November 20, 2023 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Can police search your cell phone during a traffic stop in NC? What to know."
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