Cell Phone Judicial Order

You know how the bosses are screaming for all the shooting information from a scene? The DSS, the Watch Lieutenant, downtown - everyone wants everything ten minutes ago so that more paperwork can be generated and everyone in the chain of command can look important.

This came down just this week:

• Please let the troops know that a judicial order was entered yesterday granting access to the PERSONAL CELL PHONES of ALL officers on the scene of the Paul ONeil shooting.
  
  Let me be clear: access was granted for the ENTIRE PHONE, not just for cell phone records. In addition there was no restriction placed regarding time parameters to include the time up to and just after the incident. Basically, if so ordered, the officer must turn over the phone and all its contents including pictures, texts, etc.
  
  Tell the officers to make notifications over the air or on a department cell phone or landline. There should no longer be a need for speed.

This isn't the first time cell phones have been subpoenaed in police shootings - the baseball bat shooting in 011 resulted in some embarrassing messages being revealed that were sent TO, not BY the officers.

This is ridiculous. We need a Search Warrant to go through a jagoff's phone, but ours is fair game just because it happened to be on the scene? No Reasonable Articulable Suspicion? No Probable Cause? No Warrant? What if we texted a lawyer? The spouse? Those are privileged communications.

We've stated this many times - police are not above the law, but we aren't under it either, and this seems to be a complete overreach on the part of a single judge regarding something that (in this political climate) may turn into a criminal proceeding. Not acceptable.

First up, the FOP and the PBPA ought to be filing injunctions against this immediately.

Second, no one should be making any sort of notifications from any scene. If the DSS or the Lieutenant need info, they can come to the scene and get it or they can wait until the paper car gets to the station.

Third, since we're all going to be checking out body cameras shortly, we should check out a Department issued cell phone. That way, all the pertinent communications are on a government owned device and can be archived in existence with Department regulations - like Hillary kept track of all her e-mails.

We'd like an iPhone 6 or better.

UPDATE: They're grabbing private e-mails too:

• Chicago police officers' emails discussing the Laquan McDonald shooting can't be kept secret even though they were transmitted privately, a state official has decreed in what open-records advocates say is a solid step toward transparency on an issue that has roiled Illinois and reached as high as Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.
  
  The binding opinion last week by Democratic Attorney General Lisa Madigan follows quickly on a May Cook County Circuit Court ruling that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's emails about separate issues aren't automatically exempt from disclosure even though sent on private devices.

These are your personal e-mails, so that racy joke you thought was so funny? Discoverable. That sexist picture you e-mail blasted all over the place? Discoverable. That hot date you were describing to someone? Yeah, discoverable, too. And every automatic notification or mailing list you get from the gun companies, the dating sites and social media - which opens another can of worms.

Your electronic life has just become an open book to the government and to plaintiff attorneys. You only get a pass if your last name is "Clinton."