Cell phones have a huge amount of information on them. You can tell who a person has been talking with, what they have been looking at, what they have been buying and where they have been. This is why the police are often so keen to access a person’s phone when they suspect they were involved in a crime. One way they can do this is by asking the person to look at their phone.
Are you obligated to pass the police your phone and unlock it for them if they ask?
They can get a warrant if they want to see your phone’s contents
You do not have to unlock your phone for the police when they stop you. They do not have the right to view those contents without your permission or the permission of a court via a valid search warrant. If you comply with their request because you are unsure of your rights, then they can go through the phone and look for information they could use to build a case against you.
Should I wipe or destroy my phone?
Let’s imagine that the police stop you and you refuse to unlock your phone when they ask. They let you go and the first thing that crosses your mind is to wipe things from your phone or destroy the device altogether. This is unlikely to save you. The police may still be able to access content that was on the phone. They can ask a court to subpoena the businesses that hold that information. For example, to see the social media messages you exchanged they could subpoena Meta. To see which web pages you were browsing, they could subpoena Google. To see what calls you made or received, they could subpoena your phone provider.
Phones are not as private as people often think, so it is important to learn more if you believe the police will try to access information on your phone.