Are Reverse Search Warrants Legal?

Reverse search warrants are warrants that police get when they do not know who they are looking for.

There is a case in Denver right now that could, possibly, shed some light on the answer to this question.

In this case, two teens burned down a house because, if I remember correctly, they were pissed off about some sort of drug deal gone wrong.

The cops tried for months to figure out who did it with no luck. Until they sent a reverse search warrant to Google asking for the IP addresses of anyone who searched Google for the burned-down house’s address in a time window before the arson. It turns out that the kids had the wrong address, so the house that they burned down, allegedly, is not even the house of the person that they say wronged them. Google responded, which allowed the police to get more search warrants and eventually arrest three juveniles. At least one of the cases has been transferred to adult court and because five people died in the fire, the DA is trying to move at least one more person to adult court.

The lawyer’s defense is not that the kids didn’t do it; I am guessing that is going to be hard to disprove, but rather the reverse search warrant is an illegal search. Privacy advocates say that this is a clear invasion of privacy and I understand why they say that.

It goes back to the Fourth Amendment which requires probable cause and specificity of the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.

These lawyers are hoping this case goes to the Supremes to create a precedent. So far, police departments continue to use them and use them with greater frequency. Also, there is limited precedent, one way or the other and what is there is from low level judges such as magistrate judges. We will see how how this process goes. Stay tuned.

Credit: 9News Denver

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