Florida police try to unlock phone with dead mans finger during funeral

[ansible]

LARGO, Fla. -- Florida authorities went to a funeral home and used a dead man's finger to try to unlock his cellphone as part of an investigation.

Thirty-year-old Linus Phillip was killed by a Largo police officer last month after, authorities say, he tried to drive away before an officer could search him.

At the funeral home, two detectives held the man's hands up to the phone's fingerprint sensor, but could not unlock it.

Phillip's fiancée, Victoria Armstrong, says she felt violated and disrespected.

Legal experts mostly agree that what the detectives did was legal, but they question whether it was appropriate.

Charles Rose, a professor at Stetson University College of Law, tells the Tampa Bay Times dead people can't assert their Fourth Amendment protections because you can't own property when you're dead. But those rights could apply to whoever inherits the property.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/police-use-dead-mans-finger-to-try-to-unlock-his-cellphone/

[manor321]

1. One thing this tells us. The encryption on some of these devices is solid. n/t

[sl8]

2. "... during funeral"?

I'm not seeing that in the article.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

4. No, but it has more impact than "... during embalming"

If they did this while the body was being viewed, that would be tacky.

But it would not surprise me to hear of police trying this after exhumation.

[dalton99a]

3. Search for what? They've already executed him.

[Orsino]

5. Excuses, maybe? n/t