Can police search my phone in England and Wales?

Your phone is not like your pockets. Police cannot simply demand to look through it during a stop and search or following an arrest without a specific legal basis. The law treats digital data with increasing seriousness, and courts have held that accessing the contents of a phone is a significant intrusion into privacy.

During a routine stop and search under section 1 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE), officers can search for stolen articles and offensive weapons. A phone itself is not a weapon and would only be within scope if the officer had specific grounds to believe it was stolen. They cannot use a stop and search to browse through your messages or photographs.

If you are arrested, the police can examine your phone to the extent necessary to book you into custody: they will record its presence as your property. However, accessing the data on your phone requires either your consent, a power of seizure, or later a court order. Under section 19 of PACE, officers can seize anything they have reasonable grounds to believe is evidence of an offence, but they cannot then browse its entire contents without further authority.

Where police believe a phone contains evidence of a serious offence, they will typically seek a production order under Schedule 1 to PACE or a section 49 notice under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 requiring you to provide passwords or decryption keys. Refusing to comply with a valid section 49 notice is a criminal offence carrying up to two years' imprisonment.

You do not have to hand over your phone or provide your PIN during a stop and search. If you are arrested, you may be required to provide access under specific powers, but you should seek legal advice before doing so. If officers access your phone without proper authority, any evidence obtained may be challenged in court as unlawfully obtained.

Key Points

• There is no general power for police to search your phone during a stop and search
• Arrest does not automatically give police the right to access your phone's data
• Police can seize your phone under section 19 of PACE if they have reasonable grounds to believe it contains evidence
• Accessing the contents of a seized phone usually requires a separate production order or court authority
• A section 49 RIPA notice can require you to provide passwords; refusal is a criminal offence
• You should ask the officer what legal power they are relying on before consenting to any search
• Evidence obtained through an unlawful phone search may be excluded at trial