New Cellphone Policy Protects Against Unreasonable Search and Seizure

MoGo, along with other local civil rights lawyers, filed a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of Christina Griffin-Jones, a Black Lives Matter protester after SDPD arrested her and refused to give her phone back upon her release. As part of the settlement, the City of San Diego agreed to implement a new policy that will require officers to either seek and obtain a warrant to hold or search any phone they seize, or to return the phone within a reasonable amount of time. This new policy provides a series of protections for people whose phones are taken from them and is the first of its kind in our nation from what we know.

MoGo’s Staff Attorney Branden Sigua expressed “This settlement is not only a victory for privacy and protester rights in San Diego, but a long overdue revision of the city’s policies in the age of smartphones. Given the broad range and extremely personal nature of the data available on an individual’s phone, we are happy that there is an acknowledgement of the sanctity of these devices which are central to many people’s lives.”

Read the press release here.

Read the San Diego Union-Tribune’s coverage here.