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PsYcHoLoGiCaL

Ok my 3 friends were at school which is a alt school thats arcoss a field from the regualar high school and they all had bags of weed with them, well someone at the regular high school narced on them to the school reasource officer. And he and 2 other cops go down to the alt school and searched them, lucky they didnt have the weed on them and it was in there backpacks at the regualr high school. So the cops didnt find anything but 2 of them had cell phones and cops took seized them without a warrent without anything they didnt even find drugs on them. They said it was so that they could run the phone numbers in the built in phone book for drug numbers... how the hell is that legal? It dosnt seem like they should be able to do that if they didnt find any drugs on them or somthing. well if anyone has info that would be cool.

psychological

 

HappyMan

No way in hell is that legal, call at lawyer. Tell your parents, conntact the ACLU.

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TokeyMcBongHit

That's totally illegal.
Property can't be seized without a warrant or at least probable cause, and I don't think that kids with nothing on them present cops with probably cause...

Niteshift

Before you start running to lawyers, know why you are going.

In most states, the search standards are nearly non-existant on school grounds. Searches can be done without Probable cause or reasonable susp. So the search probably won't be an issue.

Also, check to see if there are any school district policies regarding cell phones. Make sure the alternative school in particular doesn't have one.

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PsYcHoLoGiCaL

Well i know for a fact that searches on school grounds can be done for practically no reason at all in this state... and the school dose have a policy on not having cell phones however its not really inforced. But as far has if someone did take your phone from you for having it at school the policy would be to take it and give it back at the end of the day however do you think it would be legal to give the cops the cell and run it for drug number? it might be a possible defence against the suit... hrm not sure.

psychological

 

HappyMan

Taking property is illgeal, since no crimes were commited they can not rightfuly take anything from your friends. Even if the school district has a policy against cell phones, that doesn't excuse federal and state property seizure standards. I recommend getting parents involved.

Take a look at this web site...it may help.
http://www.aclu.org/students/sybil.html

Niteshift

Especially since there is a policy against cell phones, the seizure will probably stand.

The second part of the question remains: can they look at the numbers inside? Good question. I'm not sure if that will fly or not. If your firends had locked the phone (most phones will do it), then I would say the seizure would not stand up since reasonable means had been taken to protect the contents. However, they didn't, so it's a coin toss.

A word about the ACLU: The ACLU only takes cases that will benefit them. They don't take every case that is a violation of civil rights. It had to be big enough for them (read that, gets them media attention). I actually tried to get them to take a case about 5 years ago. They agreed there was a violation, but decided it wasn't big enough for them. Just so you know that they are not the panacea some think they are.

PsYcHoLoGiCaL

Ok now i have another question, I have no idea if the phones were locked at the time but if they were do the police have a way to get passed the lock? And what about the hinden phone number part of the phone can they get in there also? just wondering. I have no idea how a cop would someone 'hack' into a phone sence there are no open ports or anything on it...

psychological

Niteshift

There's almost always a way in.

For example, my brother had a cell phone, which he locked and then forget the number to unlock it. He called the cell provider, who then connected him with Ericsson. After the cell provider verified to Ericsson that my brother was really the phone owner, they told him the sequence of keys to push to get the code displayed.

Like I said though, locking it is taking a reasonable step to keep something private and goes strongly in your favor in court. Just like the difference between locking your front door or leaving it standing open. Sure, I could pick the lock, but the difference should be obvious.

DrugLawReform

Yes. They can easily get into the phone; locked or not. Most police agencies have good contacts in the telecommunications industry. Phones are easily unlocked. Typically the phone is programmed with the last 4 digits of the cell number. If the unlock code is not that easy, it is easy enough to do by a professional. Example: the unlock code for a Motorola flip phone can be found by shorting the 1 and 3 pin under the battery with a paper clip.
Also, as long as we are talking about telecommunications. Anyone who uses cellular or pagers keep in mind, with a court order, the police can get a clone which allows the police to see all the calls and/or pages the suspect recieves.