How many chances should police have to open a suspect’s phone? This judge says 175 million is the limit

Judge Ian Carter ruled Ottawa police must return or destroy three phones seized from a suspected pedophile after 175 million failed attempts to break into the devices.

"In my view, the evidence on this application establishes that further detention of the phones is not warranted because there is little hope that the passwords will be cracked in a reasonable period of time," Ontario Superior Court Justice Ian Carter wrote in his Dec. 6 court decision.  Teny Sahakian is an Associate Producer/Writer for Fox News. Follow Teny on Twitter at @tenysahakian. 

Carter denied the request, writing that the 175 million attempts represent "only an infinitesimal number" in comparison to the number of possible passwords. The odds of police cracking the codes, he said, were "so incredibly low as to be virtually non-existent."