4) Search in Plain View
Search in plain view is when a police officer finds some unexpected suspicious items, he has the right to seize them without a search warrant. In digital evidence, police officers are usually not the people who found suspicious files, this is more likely to be a server admin in organization or technician who repair digital devices for his clients.
In the past few years, there are many cases that illegal data are found in computers or other digital devices accidentally, such as Corey Beantee Melton’s case, reported by Hill,k from Forbes. He left his laptop to Bestbuy’s geek squad to repair, then some files with suspicious names are found, so they contacted with local police office, since this is under plain view, police officer seized the laptop and later applied for search warrant, at the end, Melton is found guilty.
In this case, police officer can seize but not search the laptop, because as R. v. Little (2009) stated “A computer seized as under plain view under s. 489 during the execution of a general residential search warrant is permissible. However, the search of its contents may require a warrant.”
In some cases, police officer may not seize the digital device, he may find some …show more content…
Other than destroying data in physical level, encryption is another big challenge to law enforcement, since password can be incredibly long, and with a complicated encrypting algorithm, there is no way to crack it. In United States v. David (1991), agents saw David deleting files on his computer, and they seized his computer without a search warrant. Because David’s action created exigent
Search in plain view is when a police officer finds some unexpected suspicious items, he has the right to seize them without a search warrant. In digital evidence, police officers are usually not the people who found suspicious files, this is more likely to be a server admin in organization or technician who repair digital devices for his clients.
In the past few years, there are many cases that illegal data are found in computers or other digital devices accidentally, such as Corey Beantee Melton’s case, reported by Hill,k from Forbes. He left his laptop to Bestbuy’s geek squad to repair, then some files with suspicious names are found, so they contacted with local police office, since this is under plain view, police officer seized the laptop and later applied for search warrant, at the end, Melton is found guilty.
In this case, police officer can seize but not search the laptop, because as R. v. Little (2009) stated “A computer seized as under plain view under s. 489 during the execution of a general residential search warrant is permissible. However, the search of its contents may require a warrant.”
In some cases, police officer may not seize the digital device, he may find some …show more content…
Other than destroying data in physical level, encryption is another big challenge to law enforcement, since password can be incredibly long, and with a complicated encrypting algorithm, there is no way to crack it. In United States v. David (1991), agents saw David deleting files on his computer, and they seized his computer without a search warrant. Because David’s action created exigent