Can I get my phone back ever??

[Bellemade]

TX

I am a high school administrator. We received a report from one of our students that another student was in an inappropriate video that was posted online. My colleague was able to pull up the video on his phone and we verified that it was our student. We called the school resource officer (police) and he said we needed to get the video onto a cd however there was no download option. He instructed me to use my phone to record the video while it played on the other phone. We did this under his supervision then he called his supervisor. His supervisor told him to collect our phones as they contained child pornography and we could not have them back. I thought my pictures were synced to my cloud but when I got my new phone I realized they weren't. The resource officer said I will never get the phone back because traces of the video will always be there. Can I get my phone back at least temporarily.

 

[Ohiogal]

TX

I am a high school administrator. We received a report from one of our students that another student was in an inappropriate video that was posted online. My colleague was able to pull up the video on his phone and we verified that it was our student. We called the school resource officer (police) and he said we needed to get the video onto a cd however there was no download option. He instructed me to use my phone to record the video while it played on the other phone. We did this under his supervision then he called his supervisor. His supervisor told him to collect our phones as they contained child pornography and we could not have them back. I thought my pictures were synced to my cloud but when I got my new phone I realized they weren't. The resource officer said I will never get the phone back because traces of the video will always be there. Can I get my phone back at least temporarily.

Probably not. Why would you and another teacher think it was smart to VIEW child pornography regardless of what a police officer said? You committed a crime when you recorded that video if it was child pornography and you are lucky you and your colleague were not charged.

 

[single317dad]

While I agree with the previous response that viewing and recording the video was probably a stupid thing to do, the fact is that the video (and any other data) can be easily removed, completely and entirely, from the phone. Any competent data erasure professional could remove the data completely, though depending on the phone model there may not be any mechanism to accomplish that without losing all the other data on the phone.

Whether the government agency in possession of the phone will ever return it to you, I have no idea.

 

[Zigner]

While I agree with the previous response that viewing and recording the video was probably a stupid thing to do, the fact is that the video (and any other data) can be easily removed, completely and entirely, from the phone. Any competent data erasure professional could remove the data completely, though depending on the phone model there may not be any mechanism to accomplish that without losing all the other data on the phone.

Whether the government agency in possession of the phone will ever return it to you, I have no idea.

The OP doesn't care about the old phone per se. S/he wants the personal photos, etc., that were on it.

 

[single317dad]

The OP doesn't care about the old phone per se. S/he wants the personal photos, etc., that were on it.

I was simply debunking the resource officer's alleged statement that the video could never be erased. Again, depending on the device, that may entail erasing everything, or it may not.

 

[Zigner]

I was simply debunking the resource officer's alleged statement that the video could never be erased. Again, depending on the device, that may entail erasing everything, or it may not.

Fair enough

 

[CavemanLawyer]

When devices are known to contain child pornography and seized by law enforcement they cannot just delete the illegal files and give the rest back. Even though it is possible to delete the offending file and re-write over it those specific bytes where it was stored (even 100 times over) that still is insufficient to have the storage device certified as "clean." Just downloading a file to a device doesn't mean it will only be stored in a single location. What is typically done in a situation like this is that someone with law enforcement can transfer your personal files off of the phone and onto another storage device (flash drive, CD, etc..) and then completely erase the entire storage device and re-write over it with null data. The device can be certified as clean and returned. At the very least they should copy your personal files over to you since you are only a witness and not the person being investigated/charged. If you have any issues you should just speak with a supervisor at whatever police agency is handling the case.

 

[Mt_Vernon]

TX

His supervisor told him to collect our phones as they contained child pornography and we could not have them back.

If there was no warrant for the phones, the police had no right to take them.

 

[CavemanLawyer]

If there was no warrant for the phones, the police had no right to take them.

If there is probable cause that a phone contains something like child pornography you do not need a warrant to seize it (at least in Texas.) You will need a warrant to examine its contents though. But even then, failure to obtain a search warrant only has implications for the person that the evidence is going to be used against. The poster isn't being charged with anything.

 

[Mt_Vernon]

But even then, failure to obtain a search warrant only has implications for the person that the evidence is going to be used against. The poster isn't being charged with anything.

What I meant was that, since there was no warrant, the OP should have told the officer to go pound sand. The OP should not have given up his phone in the first place.