Can law enforcement do this...?

rickinnocal

First, they can only read your text messages at all if they get a court order.

The police can't just phone the cellphone company and 'ask' - they need to get a court to grant them a search warrant based on a finding of "Probable cause".

Second, once you've deleted the texts, they'll still exist, for a while, in the archive files of the cellphone company. How 'long' they exist for depends on the company.

Most companies these days purge them after just a few days - this is because they don't WANT the hassle of having to dig out old text messages in response to warrants - it's easier to purge them, and then they can honestly say "We don't have any".

Richard

Mark S

With a warrant they can. Just because you delete something doe not mean its gone.

Wicked Kitty

Well, I think they might need a warrant (if you're in the U.S.) to do that.

If you're asking if it's physically possible to though, yes, I believe so.

bigyahbob696

They are saved on the computer servers owned by your phone company. All the law has to do is get search warrant to read them.
It has nothing to do with your phone.

rivasj27

Yes they can!! Even though you hit delete on a computer or on a cell phone..it doesn't really go away..it is still out there somewhere and it call all be retreived.

Jenna

what did you do!? i yea thye can get it from your phone company that you have the cell phone with its pretty easy i guess since there cops . if you were involed in a crime you should fess up

zealot144

Yes. The messages are stored on a server. You delete them, or keep them,as you choose. The service provider keeps them for a very long time (depending on the provider).

kaadish

I believe they can get a record of text messages from your cell provider.

Older and Wiser

It depends on how they access these records and what your cell phone contract states. If the cop confiscates your bill without a warrant, it's a violation of your 4th amendment rights; however, if the records are public in the company and they obtained them through them, then that is legal. I hope that helps!

Valley R

yeah, I'm sure your provider has an archive of them that the police would have access to.

fanatic002000

yes they can. same with instant messeages for like yahoo im and aim even though you delete the "log" they can still bring it back up again.

Randall D

they store the messages in a database at your service provider for 10 years. yes, they can read them. dont use text message dummy... it's the stupidest thing you can do. I hate texting.

Text messages are easy for them to store in a database because they take up less than a kb of space, if they tried to store all of the phone converstations it would be nearly impossible.

drake-random07name

depends on phone carrier and way messaging is set up. some phones and services keep a back-up copy. one to sim and one to phone. besides police, i doubt, are smart enough to do that for their life(no offense to them(plz dont shoot me...again...lol(not really))).

The Other Dave

Since King George destroyed the Bill of Rights they can do pretty much as they please. Goes against everything our founding fathers fought for.

stallion

Yes! They can access the past records, because these are maintained in the data base. You can access the information from the hard disc also even if it has been formatted. Be careful.

<3

yea im sure they can.

Mr. Helper

yes most texts can be viewed online or from your phone company

alienfarm19

yes, Law enforcement has deals with all phone companies and if "people could be in harms way" then they can do what ever they want.

Al Mac Wheel

There's two issues here.

One is the technical feasibility of the police reading messages that you have deleted.

The second is the ability of the police to get a search warrant or other means of accessing the text messaes that were deleted.

Your messages were not exclusively on your computer. They also traveled via some ISP to some other person computer, or other device or to you, which means your ISP probably has data that they will surrender to the police if the police have a search warrant.

Now judges do not issue search warrants on mere suspicion. The police have to make a pretty good case to justify the fishing expedition.

Even though you may have deleted messages on your equopment, depending on how your equipment works and how you did the deletion, someone with access to your equipment may be able to read the stuff you thought you deleted.

Some investigators might not go the route of seeking a search warrant. They may ask permission to enter your home on one pretext, then while there look at stuff unrelated to the excuse they used.

Sergio B

yes. they contact your phone company and by law the company has to give them your txt messeges. Well in Cali they do.

Lt Col USAFR

Never mind - Rickinnocal said it better than me. I think he just may be a lawyer. From what I've seen his answers here are always very good.

Cassandra

Yea I'm pretty sure they can read them anyways..

Amy

not sure

but to get to your phone they would have passed through satelites

so maybe theres a memory before they get to your phone??

never really thought about it...

Bandit

Cops can do whatever they want. They carry guns and can make you life a living hell if you buck them.

ALz

Man do they even have laws about cell phones about that; how hold are you like 17-18 selling weed and dumb stuff like that? well if they have the right to search your car,pockets,wallet I guess they have the right to search your cell phone.

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