FRESNO, CA (KMJ) – A Supreme Court ruling on Friday about obtaining warrants to track cell phone activity made national headlines but one Central Valley law agency say it’s nothing new.
Across the nation, police generally will need a search warrant to review cell phone records that include data like a user’s location.
Fresno County Sheriff’s Spokesperson Tony Botti says California law enforcement officers have been operating under these guidelines for years.
“What today’s ruling does is basically make the rest of the country catch up with what California’s already been doing,” said Botti. “Law enforcement’s been required through SB 178 since 2015 to get a warrant before they can access any electronic information.”
The California Electronic Communications Privacy Act, SB 178, was Introduced by two California State Senators Mark Leno, a Democrat from San Francisco, and Joel Anderson a Republican from Alpine.
Cal-ECPA was supported by a wide variety of groups and technology companies, getting 2/3 support in the California legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown signing the bill in 2015.
Botti says it doesn’t make law enforcement’s job any easier.
“It definitely presents some challenges for detectives as they try to do their work, by like anything else, any other new law we see here in California we seem to work through it.”
Click to listen to the report by KMJ’s Liz Kern:
