Bill Would Allow Police to Use 'Textalyzer' to Check for Texting & Driving

NASHVILLE, TN — A Tennessee lawmaker is working a bill which would allow police officers to use a special device to determine if a driver was texting while driving. Though texting while driving has been illegal in the state since 2009, police have found it difficult to enforce and even harder to prove in court.

State Sen. Lee Harris, Democrat of Memphis, is working on a bill which would permit officers to use a so-called "textalyzer" to test driver's cell phones following a crash with bodily harm.

"The officer would ask to see the cell phone just like they would ask you to do a breathalyzer. The driver could comply or not comply ... This will work after a serious crash where there has been serious bodily harm. .. The officer makes the determination that there is probable cause that this crash was a result of distracted driving, and in those cases they would check the cell phone,” Matt Anderson, the press secretary for the Tennessee General Assembly's Senate Democratic Caucus, told WSMV.

The textalyzer — the name an obvious allusion to the breathlyzer device used to check the blood-alcohol level of a driver suspected of drunken driving — plugs into a cell phone and shows if and when a driver was texting. It does not reveal the recipient of the text, nor its content. It was developed by Israeli company Cellebrite, which specializes in data forensics for law enforcement.

After a crash in which a driver was using his cellphone led to injuries which eventually killed 19-year-old Evan Lieberman, a college freshman from Long Island, Lieberman's father, Ben, got in touch with Cellebrite, which found it had the technology to develop the device, according to a November report from New York's ABC.

Ben Lieberman has also been pushing the New York legislature for "Evan's law" which would allow use of the textalyzer in the Empire State under similar circumstances as what Harris' proposal calls for. The New York bill is caught up in committee. New York is something of a bellwether as it was the first state to adopt hands-free device requirements for cell-phone use while driving.

There are constitutional concerns, particularly related to probable cause, but Anderson told Channel 4 those details could be hammered out in committee so the bill would pass constitutional muster.

The filing deadline for this year's session of the General Assembly is February 9.

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