Yes, police can track your phone, but they usually need a court-issued warrant or order. However, in urgent situations involving a serious risk to life, they may be able to do so without a warrant.
What is phone tracking?
Phone tracking is a crucial tool for law enforcement in Australia. Police can track your phone’s location and data, but only under strict legal rules.
Police do this to obtain information about someone’s location using their phone. This can be done is various ways such as:
- Accessing past location data stored by your mobile phone provider,
- Requesting real-time location information,
- Using location data from apps such as Google Maps, and
- Extracting location detail from photos or files shared from the device.
In most cases, they need a warrant or court order to track your phone or access your information.
Generally, phone calls can only be traced where the investigation concerns a serious offence. This includes most indictable offences, as well as any offence that carries a maximum penalty of seven years’ imprisonment or more.
Can police track your phone without a warrant?
Police may track a phone without a warrant in emergency situations. They can urgently request location data from a telecommunications provider if based on information from a caller:
- They honestly believe a person is dying,
- They honestly believe a person has been seriously injured,
- They honestly believe a person is at risk of serious injury or death.
They must believe that tracking the caller’s location will help address the emergency.
Can police track your location from a phone call?
Where a telephone call requires tracking, police can seek a telecommunications service warrant from a judge. They must have regard for:
- The extent to which interception would interfere with the privacy of any person or persons;
- the seriousness of the offence or offences under investigation;
- The extent to which interception is likely to assist the investigation;
- whether alternative investigative methods that do not involve intercepting communications have been used or are available;
- The extent to which those alternative methods are likely to assist the investigation; and
- The extent to which those alternative methods may prejudice the investigation, including through delay or other impacts.
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