Preserving Lawful Electronic Surveillance

• NCJ Number: 178825
• Journal: Police Chief Volume: 66 Issue: 9 Dated: September 1999 Pages: 40-42
• Author(s): Leslie M. Szwajkowski
• Date Published: September 1999
• Length: 3 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article examines the intent and implementation problems of the Federal Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), which is designed to preserve law enforcement's ability to use lawfully authorized electronic surveillance in an age of rapid changes in telecommunications technology.

Abstract

Digital technology is rendering obsolete traditional equipment and techniques used by law enforcement to obtain evidence of crimes; consequently, law enforcement's wiretapping ability is being degraded, as once-routine surveillances are now nearly impossible to conduct. In an effort to address this situation, CALEA, among other provisions, directs the telecommunications industry to design, develop, and deploy solutions that provide certain capabilities to law enforcement. Telecommunications carriers must be able not only to quickly isolate and intercept real-time conversations and dialed number information, but also to make that information available to law enforcement in the appropriate format. Congress authorized $500 million to reimburse telecommunications carriers for reasonable costs directly associated with implementing CALEA's mandates. Unfortunately, the telecommunications industry now opposes law enforcement on various aspects of the law. The most important area of disagreement concerns what specific capabilities must be delivered to law enforcement. The politically active telecommunications industry has made repeated attempts to amend CALEA by extending CALEA's "grandfather" date to the year 2000. Any change to the CALEA "grandfather" date would have significant negative public-safety and national-security ramifications for law enforcement, because it would allow the creation of an enormous "embedded base" of noncompliant telecommunications equipment throughout the country. Only with the continued support of the entire law enforcement community will CALEA be fully implemented.