Real-Time Cell Phone Tracking Update, Including a New Case

The Court of Appeals of North Carolina recently decided a case about police obtaining real-time location information from a suspect’s cellular service provider. The case does not address the principal controversy concerning such information. Nonetheless, it provides a good refresher on the issue and marks a good time for an update on the national controversy about this issue. The case is State v. Forte, __ N.C. App. __ (Jan. 16, 2018). It began when Greenville officers arrested a heroin dealer who agreed to set up his supplier. The informant provided his supplier’s cellular telephone number to the officers, who obtained from a superior court judge an order entitled “Order Authorizing Pen Register/Trap and Trace and Disclosure of Records and Other Information Pursuant to 18 USC § 3123 and 2703(d).” The order is part of the record on appeal, which is available here. The Greenville officers enlisted the SBI, and SBI agents were able to use the order to track the location of the supplier’s phone in real time. Based in part on the tracking data, the Greenville officers were able to intercept the supplier as he arrived in town from New York. The officers obtained consent to search the vehicle in which the supplier was travelling. They found heroin in the vehicle, and he was charged with trafficking. The supplier-defendant moved to suppress “any seizures, arrest, detentions, and wire taps . . . based on information provided by [the informant].” When the court heard the motion, defense counsel argued that the [...]