techdirt: Reverse Warrant Used In Robbery Investigation Being Challenged As Unconstitutional

techdirt: Reverse Warrant Used In Robbery Investigation Being Challenged As Unconstitutional by Tim Cushing (“Reverse warrants are being challenged in a criminal case involving a bank robbery in Virginia. These warrants (also called ‘geofence warrants’) work in reverse, hence the nickname. Rather than seeking to search property belonging to a known suspect, investigators approach Google with a demand for information on all cellphones in a certain location at a certain time and work backwards from this stash to determine who to pursue as a suspect. [¶] Warrants require probable cause. And there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of specific probable cause supporting these fishing expeditions. In this case, a bank was robbed in the late afternoon, resulting in plenty of people unrelated to the robbery being in the vicinity. This is all it takes to turn random people into suspects. And that has gone badly for investigators and, more importantly, innocent citizens on more than one occasion. “)

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