Surprising Things Police Can Do Without A Warrant

Last Updated on December 6, 2024

The Constitution may protect you from unreasonable search and seizure, but many people have no idea how complex search warrant laws are. For example, the police cannot search your cell phone without a warrant, but they can search your car without a warrant if they have “reasonable suspicion.” In fact, they can do many things without first obtaining a warrant —including collecting a DNA sample through “surreptitious sampling.”

Police Don’t Need a Warrant for DNA Samples

The most shocking thing police can do without a search warrant is collect a DNA sample. While police have to have a warrant to do a cheek swab or remove a hair sample directly from your body, there are many other ways they can obtain your DNA without notifying you or obtaining a warrant. The process is called surreptitious sampling, and it occurs when a person leaves a DNA sample behind somewhere —and, unfortunately, we all leave DNA behind everywhere we go.

Whenever police can get an uncompromised DNA sample from something a suspect threw away, they legally can. If a suspect smoked a cigarette and left it in an ashtray in front of an officer or threw away a cup of water during a police interrogation, it can be collected and used as evidence. They can even swab a chair you sat in to get a DNA sample from your sweat.

While some courts have upheld the practice, treating the DNA like anything else you have discarded, attorneys and privacy experts have argued that people shed DNA samples everywhere and the only way a person could protect themselves from such searches would be to wear a bio-hazard suit all the time. For the time being though, surreptitious sampling is still entirely legal throughout California and the rest of the US.

Police Don’t Need a Warrant to Access Social Media Profiles

Any data you make available to the public can be accessed by police, including information you post on social media. While this might not be all too surprising, you may be shocked to learn that police can go further than that by creating fake social media accounts to get access to private profiles and posts. They can even create fake profiles of people you know in real life, meaning that friend you had in high school who just sent you a friend request could actually be a cop trying to investigate you. It’s certainly something to remember the next time you get a friend request from an attractive stranger or someone you haven’t seen for a while.

Since you probably haven’t called all your real-life friends to confirm that their profiles actually belong to them and not an imposter, avoid saying anything on social media that you wouldn’t otherwise say to the police. Always avoid posting about things that could tie you to crimes, but also remember that things you say could be used as evidence against you. For example, suppose a person writes on Twitter about how much they hate Latinos and believe that Mexicans should all be sent back to Mexico. In that case, this could be used as evidence of a hate crime if that person is later accused of battery against a Hispanic person.

Warrantless Searches of Phone Records and IP Addresses

Police can’t listen to your phone calls without a warrant, but they can see who you called and when all thanks to a 1979 Supreme Court decision that determined call logs are not protected by the Fourth Amendment. All they need to do is provide a subpoena to the phone company, which doesn’t even require judicial approval in many cases. The process for obtaining an IP address is pretty much the same.

You Can Give Up Your Rights By Consenting to a Search

If you consent to a police search of your property, they no longer have to obtain a warrant. In most cases, you cannot later object to a search if you have already consented to one, which is why police will often casually discuss letting them “take a look” at your property while telling you that they are just trying to rule you out as a suspect.

Another tactic they often use to obtain your consent is telling you they will get a warrant if you don’t consent. While it’s true that they may get a search warrant, they also might not be able to get one, but if you agree to a search, you can’t take away that consent later. Never speak to the police, even casually, without a lawyer present.

The Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure are highly complex and have been interpreted many ways in different courts —and new rulings are made all the time. If you have questions about your rights under the Constitution, please call (760) 643-4050 or (858) 486-3024 to schedule a consultation with Peter M. Liss.