Commonwealth v. Almonor, 482 Mass. 35

Summary

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held that police use of a cellular-service-provider ping to cause a defendant's cell phone to transmit its real-time GPS location constitutes a search under art. 14 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights. The court nevertheless concluded that the warrantless search was supported by probable cause and justified by exigent circumstances in the investigation of a murder suspect believed to possess a shotgun. The court therefore reversed the allowance of the defendant's motion to suppress.

Holdings

1. Police action that causes an individual's cellular telephone to reveal its real-time location intrudes on a reasonable expectation of privacy and constitutes a search under article 14 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights.
2. The warrantless cell-phone search was reasonable under the exigent circumstances exception because police had probable cause and reasonable grounds to believe that obtaining a warrant would be impracticable due to risks of flight, destruction of evidence, and danger to police or others.

Questions Presented

1. Whether police action causing a cellular telephone to transmit its real-time location constitutes a search under article 14 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights or the Fourth Amendment.
2. Whether the warrantless real-time location search was reasonable under the exigent circumstances exception to the warrant requirement.
3. Whether the evidence seized from the bedroom should be suppressed as fruit of the warrantless cell-phone search.

Disposition

reversed