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I’m having a tough time thinking of an example where this makes sense. I guess if there was one incriminating document they had evidence was on your phone and then you wiped it you’d be interfering with the investigation under the assumption there could be more? If they knew a out the one then they would have a copy of it and some proof you have it on your phone. You wiping it doesn’t help you much for that particular crime. If it’s a crime to delete the stuff they didn’t know you had, that sounds ripe for abuse. They could find something banal like a miscompleted tax form and use it to do a deep dive into someone’s entire document library, browser hx, etc. Perhaps I’m on the wrong side of the law on this one, but it seems like the law should favor a right to avoid self-incrimination and a right to protection from unjust violations of privacy. Anyway, while it looks suspicious, couldn’t it just be an accidental data wipe? Cops making accusations against someone could make them nervous, maybe make typing finger shaky and inaccurate. Maybe they could mis-enter their password 10 times in a row and trigger a wipe?
Replies (2)
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yea you have it yes, if they have confirmation that you had said evidence, and they were seizing the device to collect more evidence regarding it then it would be obstruction of justice and destroying evidence, but they need to be able to prove that claim. Unless they can prove that claim then it’s an unlawful search (excluding some form of law that they may have at port authorities)
Open ##51015
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Another case is if they get a warrant for whatever’s on your phone, you knew, and then erased your phone.
Warrants make more sense, because a warrant can be issued just due to probable cause. They need that cause, but that cause doesn’t have to be directly related to your phone. Once you know they have a warrant to search it, you would qualify as “knowingly” altering or destroying evidence.
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