Since this year, senior police officers in Britain are allowed to do
remote computer searches without the need for a search warrant. Although
the rules to abide by are quite strict, I'm not sure I can agree with
this initiative. On one side I'd say yes, sure, if you can prevent a
serious crime with it, why not... but on the other hand, what about
privacy, and where does one draw the line of what is a reasonable cause
for such a search and what is not? I do understand that this will make
life easier for police officers, and they might get results quicker, but
I still tend to agree with the statement of the court in a case as
described by Susan
Brenner; which is that a search warrant is required, or else it is
considered trespassing:
The plaintiffs in those cases sued English law enforcement officers, claiming the officers had committed trespass by breaking into their homes and searching them. To what I suspect was the government’s surprise, the plaintiffs won. The courts held that it is a trespass for a law enforcement officer to do this, just as it would be an actionable trespass if you or I were to do it. The courts also held, though, that an officer was protected from liability if he committed the breaking into and searching under the authority of a court-issued warrant, a search warrant. So the search warrant gave the officer a complete defense to a suit for trespass.
