Geofence Search Warrants

Ever hear of a “geofence search warrant” (AKA; Reverse Location Warrant)   I had not, at least until recently turned onto the subject by a concerned investigator. A geofence (or “geo-fence”) warrant is a search warrant issued by a court allowing law enforcement to search a database to find all active mobile devices within a particular geofence (or geographical) area during a specified period of time. Such warrants are a relatively new (although increasingly popular) investigative technique used by law enforcement in its attempt to identify a specific suspect in a crime (or, more often, series of crimes) under investigation.  Geofence warrants are used to obtain information from databases (such as Google’s “Sensorvault”) where a user’s historical geo-location data is stored.   Unlike ordinary warrants for electronic records that identify the suspect in advance of the search, geofence warrants essentially work backwards by scooping up the location data from every device that happened to be within a specifically identified geographical area during a specific period of time in the past. The warrants therefore necessarily allow the government to examine the data from a wide range of individuals wholly unconnected to any criminal activity, with law enforcement agents using their own “unbridled” discretion in ....

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