Court Approves Police Search Of Cell Phone Used In Teacher Parking Lot Drug Deals

Of interest to educators is a case involving teenagers allegedly dealing drugs in the teachers' parking lot of W.P. Wagner School on a summer evening in Nipawin, Saskatchewan. In R v. Jones, 2015 SKPC 29, the accused were arrested following a search of their car and cell phone. The Provincial Court of Saskatchewan decision, dated March 3, 2015, includes a succinct summary of the case in the opening paragraph:

Two teenagers are sitting inside a car in a school parking lot. A series of vehicles drive up to them, exchange something and then drive off. The police stop the car being driven by one of the teenagers, take away his cell phone and go through it. This case asks whether the police have the authority to do this.

The teens were charged with trafficking and possession of marijuana. They challenged the admissibility of the cell phone evidence, among other challenges, such as arbitrary detention arising from the vehicle stop. This article focuses on the Court's review of the warrantless cell phone search by police.

The RCMP officers who searched the teenagers' phones were responding to a 911 call made at 7:10 in the evening. The caller reported a white car parked in the school parking lot, and other vehicles pulling up alongside with exchanges taking place, and subsequently driving away leaving the white car in the parking lot. The obvious inference is that the occupants of the white vehicle were selling drugs in hand-to-hand exchanges with each car that drove up alongside.

The Court had no difficulty finding that the officers had reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. Upon observing the white car, there was no other explanation for its presence in the school parking lot. The Court concluded that "these were a succession of quick exchanges between cars in the teachers' parking lot of an elementary school in the evening in the middle of summer when the school was closed and no one else was around. It is more possible, and likely, that they were selling drugs from the Crown Victoria vehicle than they were selling items off ebay or passing notes from class at summer school."

Supreme Court Test For Police Searches Of Cell Phones

As reported in the Winter 2015 Edition of the BLG Education Law Newsletter, the Supreme Court of Canada developed a new test for police searches of cell phones. In R v. Fearon, 2014 SCC 77, the Supreme Court considered whether the existing power for police to search pursuant to a lawful arrest extends to cell phone...