Active Self Protection

I listened to this episode last night at work and was particularly struck by the investigator/state's attorney telling the defender they planned on issuing a subpoena for his phone. I'm assuming this was because he called his wife immediately after.

My questions are: how common is this? How broad is the scope with these warrants? Would a "spicy meme" saved from 6 months ago or messages from a group chat with "the boys" potentially come into play at trial if charged?

My assumption is yes and digital sanitizing should probably go beyond social media and actually involve our personal devices.

Sanitizing won't help if they really want something there, because digital trails are forever. That said, a warrant to search a phone must be for something specific and will be limited to that specific thing. Think of that subpoena like a warrant to search your house, the judge will approve it maybe but only for a specific reason and looking for a specific thing.

Shifting to the possible (likely?) civil suit after the criminal decisions (charge or not, etc.), ask your lawyer whether content from your phone can be mandated by the opposing party during discovery.
That may be a good reason if possible to have someone else call both 911 and your defense support group (FLP, etc.) or lawyer, for the initial contacts. I have not done this, but maybe pre-plan a text message to a spouse or BFF that will cause them to call that service to start their ball rolling.
Related, as Mike pointed out in the podcast, the 911 call is recorded and can be used as evidence. Even if you have a bystander call 911, say nothing within earshot of that phone beyond your 5 key items or "after my lawyer" statement.