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MT: Conversations over commercially available hand held radios that were monitored by police had no reasonable expectation of privacy

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Conversations over commercially available hand held radios that were monitored by police had no reasonable expectation of privacy under the Montana Constitution or Fourth Amendment. State v. Cotterell, 2008 MT 409, 2008 Mont. LEXIS 651 (December 9, 2008): [*P52] In the case sub judice, Cotterell asserts that he had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the conversations he had with his son over their hand-held radios. On the facts of this case, we reject Cotterell's position. Cotterell and his son engaged in their communications using widely available hand-held radios over a public channel that can be monitored by anyone using similar equipment. Contrary to Cotterell's assertions, these sorts of conversations cannot be considered "private...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on December 11, 2008 (boomark / email).