State v. Copes

Advances in personal technology, like the cell phone, empower individual users but may also threaten personal privacy. When police make use of the features of that technology to solve crime, courts and lawyers sometimes struggle to devise ground rules that respect constitutional privacy protections. *586This case involves an example of the law’s effort to keep apace.

Detectives investigating the gruesome murder of a young homeless woman in Baltimore City determined that a cell phone associated with her—but not found with her body—was still in active use. Hoping to find the phone—and the…