Last week Vermont lawmakers introduced a bill that would allow police officers to search cellphones without a warrant. As proposed, these searches would be limited to allowing law enforcement officials to determine whether the driver had violated Vermont’s ban on using handheld devices while driving.
It is unfortunate that the state’s ban on using handheld devices while driving does not have teeth. Police have to catch a driver texting or talking on their phone to issue a ticket and fine.
And it is absolutely, unequivocally horrifying to watch oncoming drivers to see how many eyes are turned down to look at a cellphone held below the dashboard, glancing back up every few seconds or so.
The bill’s lead sponsor, Martin Lalonde, wants to make the law more enforceable so that if the police stop you, they can search your electronic devices. Good intention but bad idea.
For better or worse, our cellphones are now small computers that contain a great deal of personal, intimate, private, financial and professional information, information that law enforcement has no business seeing.
And, because nothing is ever deleted from any device ever, it will always be possible for law enforcement officials to re-create your digital activities should you be involved in an accident.
According to the Vermont ACLU, the way the law is written, it would allow police officers to search any portable electronic device in your car with you. That means your laptop, your tablet and your iPod in addition to your phone.
This is a privacy issue and this proposed legislation takes the wrong tact to try to address the very real and very dangerous problem of digitally distracted driving.
It is hard to imagine that we can legislate away the idiocy of texting and driving. It is likely something that will require social change, peer pressure and maybe technological advances from the automotive industry and the cellphone industry that make it impossible for drivers to use their phones other than via hands-free Bluetooth.
