Reading Room Document

Transmission by a Wireless Carrier of Information Regarding a Cellular Phone User's Physical Location to Public Safety Organizations

Neither 47 U.S.C. § 1002(a) nor the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution prohibits a wireless carrier's transmission to local public safety organizations of information regarding the physical location of a caller who uses a cellular telephone to dial the 911 emergency line. Although 18 U.S.C. § 2703 would apparently apply to the carrier's transmission of such location information to public safety organizations, the caller, by dialing 911, has impliedly consented to such disclosure, thus permitting the federal government to require the carrier to disclose such information without a warrant or court order. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at www.justice.gov/file/19976/download.

September 10, 1996