I've seen this posted a couple times and want to address it as someone who has done it.

First, you have to write search warrants to every single cell company. It's a bunch.

In that you put the location of the crime and a time frame, along with the PC, which amounts to "We're out of fricking other options" as it is considered, legally, a huge invasion of privacy due to the blanket nature of the information requested.

Then you have to hope all the following occur:

You get those records back in a quick time fashion. Reality: it could be months for some of these half arse cell companies.

The cell towers are all in close proximity to the location. Otherwise you're going to get thousands upon thousands of numbers.

The perp or perps had a cell phone on them.

The perp or perps were registered to that number and it wasn't a prepaid phone or under another person's name.

By some miracle, you are able to narrow alllllll that down to a good suspect. Without additional evidence, it's worthless.

All that to say it can be done, should be done if necessary, but in no realm is it magic or anything other than a last ditch hail mary attempt.

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Posted by LSUFAITHFUL

Member since Oct 2007

1089 posts

Posted on 9/20/22 at 7:26 pm to Bawcephus

quote:
In that you put the location of the crime and a time frame, along with the PC, which amounts to "We're out of fricking other options" as it is considered, legally, a huge invasion of privacy due to the blanket nature of the information requested.

That’s not how it works. You have to have a suspect and probable cause for THAT suspect to get a warrant to subpoena their cell records. You can’t just ask cell phone providers for records of anyone that was “in the area.”

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Posted by magildachunks

Member since Oct 2006

32486 posts

Posted on 9/20/22 at 11:21 pm to Bawcephus

quote:
The perp or perps were registered to that number and it wasn't a prepaid phone or under another person's name.

Pre-paid is actually incredibly easy to pinpoint to a suspect.

And easier to get a search warrant for.

It's very hard to get a search warrant for every cell phone, usually you have to ask for a search warrant for the phone of a specific person.

But if you ask for a search warrant for pre-paid phones, you'll get that granted easier than asking for all phones.

Once you have the pre-paid info, you have everything about it: where it was bought, how it was paid for (cash or card), when and where it was activated, and any numbers called, or text transcripts involving the phone.

Most stores have cameras pointed at the registers, so you have video evidence of the person who bought the phone.

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