Bill would let police get cellphone data without a warrant in emergencies

A bill moving at the North Carolina General Assembly would let police track people's cellphone location without a warrant in an emergency, a change advocates say will help find missing people before it's too late.

House Bill 213 is named after Kelsey Smith, a Kansas teenager who went missing in 2007. By the time police got her wireless provider to ping her cellphone – a process that took several days, according to various media reports – she had been killed.

Smith's family has since advocated to streamline this process around the country, and a number of states have passed legislation to do so.

The effort has failed before in North Carolina over privacy concerns, but the bill started its legislative journey again Wednesday, clearing the House Judiciary 3 committee. It would require cellular providers to provide information to law enforcement, who could ask for it "only in an emergency situation that involves an imminent risk of death or serious physical harm," according to the bill.

Rep. Pat Hurley, R-Randolph, the lead sponsor, said the bill will save lives. She said other states that passed the measure have not seen it abused by police, as some fear.

Rep. Terry Brown, D-Mecklenburg, tried to amend the bill to require police to come before a judge within 72 hours of receiving location data and justify the ask by describing the emergency. Hurley and other bill supporters rejected the amendment, but there was some discussion of tweaking the language later on to incorporate the idea.

Hurley said these request will be too common to continually seek out a judge.

"They're doing this every day," she said. "I mean, there are people getting lost every day.”

The bill has another House committee to clear before it heads to the House floor for a vote.