Police Technology Case Law Center
A practical legal research resource addressing the Fourth Amendment, digital evidence, location tracking, surveillance technology, artificial intelligence, and other emerging technologies used in public safety.
Technology Changes. Fourth Amendment Principles Endure.
Police technology continues to evolve faster than the case law governing it. Courts are increasingly required to apply traditional Fourth Amendment principles to technologies capable of collecting, aggregating, analyzing, and retaining information at a scale that was previously impossible.
The Shield Police Technology Case Law Center is designed for law enforcement leaders, investigators, attorneys, analysts, policy makers, and risk managers who need more than a citation. Each full case summary explains the facts, procedural history, legal issue, holding, reasoning, operational significance, and practical implications for public safety agencies.
How to Use This Resource
Search by case name, technology, legal doctrine, or issue. You can also filter the library by technology category and court.
Individual summaries are written to identify both the governing rule and the operational decisions agencies should evaluate when adopting or using the technology involved.
Chatrie v. United States — Geofence Location Data
On June 29, 2026, the United States Supreme Court held that law enforcement conducted a Fourth Amendment search when officers obtained location data associated with Okello Chatrie from Google. The decision represents an important development in the Court's location-privacy jurisprudence and has implications extending beyond geofence warrants.
Read the Chatrie case summary →Search the Case Law Center
Case Library
Select a case to open the complete Shield case analysis.
Chatrie v. United States
Supreme Court consideration of law enforcement acquisition of Google location information through a geofence warrant.
Carpenter v. United States
The Court confronted the application of the third-party doctrine to historical cell-site location information capable of chronicling a person's movements.
United States v. Jones
The government installed and used a GPS tracking device on a vehicle, producing a foundational modern Fourth Amendment decision involving technology-enabled location surveillance.
Riley v. California
The Court examined whether the search-incident-to-arrest doctrine permits warrantless examination of the digital contents of a seized cell phone.
United States v. Wurie
One of the principal appellate decisions that preceded the Supreme Court's modern treatment of cell-phone searches in Riley.
United States v. Flores-Lopez
An early federal appellate decision examining the extent to which law enforcement could obtain information from a cellular telephone following an arrest.
United States v. Moore-Bush
A significant federal appellate treatment of prolonged pole-camera surveillance directed toward a residence.
United States v. Tuggle
Addresses sustained video surveillance of a residence through government-operated cameras positioned in public locations.
United States v. Houston
Examines warrantless video surveillance of property from a lawful public vantage point.
United States v. Diggs
Addresses Fourth Amendment limits implicated by technology-assisted visual surveillance.
People v. Maxon
California litigation addressing prolonged pole-camera surveillance and the privacy implications of sustained technological observation of a residence.
State v. Hay
Addresses the constitutional consequences of technologically enhanced surveillance conducted over time.
Van Buren v. United States
The Court addressed the meaning of exceeding authorized access under the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act in a case involving a law enforcement officer's use of a database.
United States v. Microsoft Corp.
Litigation involving government access to electronic communications stored by a U.S. technology provider outside the United States.
hiQ Labs, Inc. v. LinkedIn Corp.
Litigation concerning automated collection of information available on publicly accessible web pages and the scope of federal computer-access restrictions.
Sandvig v. Barr
Litigation involving researchers seeking to use automated techniques and fictitious accounts to evaluate algorithmic discrimination on websites.
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Technology Areas Covered
Location Tracking
CSLI, GPS, geofence warrants, location histories, device location data, and aggregation of movement information.
Video Surveillance
Pole cameras, prolonged surveillance, public-view observations, aggregation, and mosaic-theory concerns.
ALPR & Vehicle Intelligence
Automated license plate readers, historical plate databases, vehicle tracking, retention, sharing, and large-scale aggregation.
Cell Phones
Device searches, digital contents, location data, search incident to arrest, warrants, and extraction technologies.
Digital Evidence
Cloud records, electronic communications, service-provider information, cross-border evidence, and third-party data.
Computer & Data Access
Government databases, automated data collection, open web information, authorized access, and computer-use restrictions.