Lee Reiber

A simple version of cell-phone connect-the-dots helped Chattanooga police arrest a suspect in the June 2004 death of prostitute Jacqueline Lindsey, whose body was found floating in Chickamauga Lake.

Investigators obtained the cell phone records of suspect Steven Szabo, then connected points where his phone made contact with cell phone towers. Police were able to plot Mr. Szabo from a local Marriott Hotel to the spot where Ms. Lindsey’s body was dumped then back to the hotel, Chattanooga police have said.

They also noted cell phone records showing the suspect making calls to an escort service after the time of Ms. Lindsey’s death and dumping, which placed him back in the hotel and disproved any alibi he could have had.

In light of the evidence, which also included bloodstains and missing hotel blankets, Mr. Szabo eventually pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and received a 25-year sentence.

“If a suspect said, ‘I was in East Ridge the time this happened and they’re bouncing off a cell (tower) site a block from the crime, that kind of nullifies what they said,” said Investigator James Holloway with the Chattanooga Police Department major crimes division. “(Cell phone records) can corroborate what a suspect is saying, but at the same time they can disprove what they’re saying.”

As more people use cell phones, provider records have become important to law enforcement agencies, said Lee Reiber, owner of Mobile Forensics Inc., based in Boise, Idaho. He also works as a computer and cell phone forensic examiner for the Boise Police Department.

“As prevalent as cell phones are in our society, records are only going to be more important to law enforcement,” he said. “(Cell phones are) so cheap, everybody’s carrying them around, making calls, sending text messages, utilizing camera features. It’s only a benefit to law enforcement.”

Records can help officers determine the receiver and length of calls, the location of a phone when a call is made and even the location of the phone when it’s on but not in use.

Law enforcement agencies, however, must back up cell phone evidence with additional proof because the owner of a phone could have loaned it to someone else, Mr. Reiber said.

“You can never really tell where someone is,” he said. “You can tell where the phone is and the approximate area where the phone is.”

Cell phone providers have measures to keep customers’ information private but also to cooperate with law enforcement agencies, said Verizon Wireless spokeswoman Sheryl Sellaway.

The company has a subpoena office that handles all requests for information, but the number of those requests is difficult to gauge because the provider has 70 million customers, Ms. Sellaway said. Law enforcement agencies must validate the reasons for the necessity of cell phone information, she added.

“We vigorously protect our customers’ privacy,” Ms. Sellaway said. “(But) we recognize that cell phone records could be valuable to crack a case or help track down someone.”

Sprint annually receives tens of thousands of requests for information from law enforcement, spokesman Matt Sullivan said.

“Once we receive a subpoena or court order, we first authenticate that the requestor is in fact a member of law enforcement before we will provide the requested information — a process that can be done by fax and can take minutes, as opposed to hours,” he said.

Getting records quickly is a challenge for law enforcement agencies, who must obtain search warrants if they want more details than incoming and outgoing calls, Mr. Reiber said.

Even with all the technology, investigators still haven’t started using records as often as they could, he added.

“It’s an underutilized tool at this point,” Mr. Reiber said.