New Jersey Law Would Allow Police To Seize Cell Phones, Records After Car Crashes

Shift518 Automotive
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A New Jersey lawmaker wants to enable police to search a driver’s cell phone immediately after a crash to see if the phone contributed to the accident.
State Sen. James Holzapfel (R-Ocean County) recently introduced legislation that would allow police officers to automatically confiscate a cell phone if there is a suspicion that the driver was texting or talking on the phone prior to the accident, the Star Ledger reported Monday. The legislation would also increase penalties for texting while driving. The New Jersey bill, which is opposed by civil liberties activists, is the second attempt in the nation to give police this power.
Holzapfel’s legislation states that whenever a driver has been involved in an accident resulting in death, injury or property damage, a police officer may confiscate the driver’s telephone and review the phone’s history to see if the phone was being used at the time of the accident. The information obtained would then be used in the police report. Current laws require police to obtain a search warrant or the driver’s permission to review the phone’s history.

:wow

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I’m actually more amazed it wasn’t NY or CA proposing this first.

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have they never heard of a cars built in bluetooth?
I suppose they could track texting but thats about it.

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And phones can convert speech into texts messages now too.

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while you all are amazed by this, guess what it doesn’t need to be a law. cops can confiscate anything they think played a part in the accident. so if they think you being on your phone caused an accident they can look at your phone. but you know what they can do, force u to give your password to your phone.

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why would they need this law then?

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That’s the point. Most laws aren’t needed because there’s already laws on the books that kind of “umbrella” them in. 9 times out of 10 this is just some lawmaker trying to make a name for themselves or for some other special interest.

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they don’t, just like they don’t need a law saying you can’t text and drive because it’s distracted driving which is already illegal. but now you can question it less when they go to take your phone. it gets rid of the grey area and instead of the cop saying well the phone could of led to the accident so i can take it to look because a law says i can investigate anything that could cause an accident they now can say the law says u got in an accident so i can take your phone.