When can local/county police justifiably tune into cell phone calls?

[Baitball Blogger]

I don't know if Florida has any special laws against listening in on cell phone calls and I realize that may be a loophole. But I had an experience which made me wonder if police can justifiably use that loophole to "spy" on the citizenry when they feel they have cause.

Recently I had the unpleasant experience of helping a friend move out of their home because of a 24 hour eviction notice. The Sheriff gave them the notice in the morning and by early afternoon the decision was made to move out in the time alotted. We'll just say that, though the notice came as a shock, the person accepted the errors in judgment that led to that moment and felt that the important thing was to save what was left.

I offered to pay for the packing items and went to Home Depot to pick up boxes and wrap. On my way back to the car I noticed that a county sheriff was parked across from me, but his car was backed into the parking space. I glanced in his direction and noticed that he was engaged in whatever was on the laptop that peeked over the console. As I put the items away in the back of my car I realized that he was positioned to see everything that I was putting in the trunk, which was about 75 dollars worth of boxes and wrap. He also looked away whenever I looked in that direction.

When I left the parking lot, I noticed another county police car. As I went through the back roads to get home I noticed that the sheriff vehicle also took the same route. We both turned onto the main road which was a three lane road going in our direction. I stayed to the middle lane because I needed to get gas which required a left turn about a mile or two down the road. This was out of my way since I needed to take a right turn to head back to my friend's house.

The police car was on the far left lane. I watched it and two other cars that were in front of it because I needed to get in that lane. The other two cars sped by me, but the police car hung back. I had a feeling that it was never going to pass me so I put my blinker on, looked back for insurance, and went into the left hand lane.

In that moment that I turned back, I noticed that it was a police woman and I was intrigued because I thought I saw the same laptop console that I had seen in the other car. I didn't realize that they had that technology mounted in the car. I was also intrigued because she was on a cell phone while she was driving. She looked perplexed. I took my left hand turn into the gas station shortly after and looked up in time to see that she had quickly crossed two lanes of traffic to get in the far right hand lane to turn on the main road that would have taken her to my friend's house. That was the moment when I started to connect the sightings and began to wonder if there were other cars in the area. I did see a State Trooper pass by. There would also be another Sheriff's police car in my friend's development later that day.

So, it made me wonder. Just for the sake of debate, is an eviction notice grounds to listen in on cell phone conversations and track down people who are trying to help out during these traumatic moments?

[RKP5637]

1. OMG, if they are that concerned about an eviction notice, it's a total WTF. It's hard to tell

WTF cops are doing today, as it seems citizens have all been declared terrorists and enemy #1. All guilty until proved innocent.

[Baitball Blogger]

4. The facts just keep getting creepier the more I hear from people who understand how these things

work. It involved one of those foreclosures that are instigated by a homeowner's association board based on late fee payments. The person was getting the house ready for sale and thought that the association would take their money out after the sale went through. But the association proceeded with the foreclosure and a house flipper whose local business is less than two years old got it for the cost of the late fees, which was under five thousand dollars. He will be responsible for the liens on the house, but still, he comes out ahead by a good chunk.

And who got stung by this horrible system? A single parent who raised two children on her own after her husband died from medical complications. She's over sixty and the little she would have come ahead on the sale of the house she was planning to help out her children who are making their way in the world on their own, without the benefit of strings to pull. Now she has to start all over again.

So, if the sheriff was anticipating trouble and decided to be proactive about the situation, that was just criminal.

[RKP5637]

5. Outrageous! n/t

[Lee-Lee]

2. Your just being paranoid

No, they won't be listening. Nobody really cares about evictions other then having to do them.

For further information, those computers are called Mobile Data Terminals and are simply computers hooked into the PD network, they can use them to run a tag instead of calling it in to dispatch, they write reports on them, write tickets and print them, instant message between cars and dispatch and get dispatched or get extra info for dispatches.

The stuff required to listen for a cell phone call is complex and expensive, and the warrant required is a pain. Nobody is wasting that much effort and expense for an eviction.

99% chance that officer in the parking lot was catching up on writing reports between calls.

[Baitball Blogger]

3. Thanks for the info Lee-lee!

This place likes to go over the line when it comes to jurisdictional issues so it's always good to check. For example, my city will be working with one of the national security agencies to install security cameras throughout the city. How a city which insists it has a low crime rate can justify this federal windfall is beyond me.