Should Police Wiretap? - The States Don't Agree

• NCJ Number: 89052
• Journal: Police Magazine Volume: 6 Issue: 3 Dated: (May 1983) Pages: 29-32,36-41
• Author(s): K Krajick
• Date Published: 1983
• Length: 10 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS.

Annotation

The use of electronic surveillance by police varies greatly among States, and the fear of police abuse of wiretapping continues to block surveillance laws in many States.

Abstract

Police in New York, Florida, and New Jersey account for nearly 70 percent of all State and local wiretaps and hidden bugs, but this imbalance is due to variations in State laws rather than crime. Title III of the 1968 Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act gave police the right to conduct electronic surveillance and use the tapes in court, but some of the 28 States that have passed tap laws have enacted stricter controls than the Federal law. Moreover, many States rarely use their tap laws. Critics claim that wiretaps threaten personal privacy and political freedom and that the information produced is not worth the technique's high costs. Others contend that it is an invaluable weapon against organized crime, citing New Jersey's use of innovative wiretapping techniques to produce evidence when other methods have failed. Florida police and prosecutors have used wiretaps successfully against gambling and narcotics operations, but had evidence collected in Operation Tick-Talks and Snow White thrown out of court in 1982. As a result, procedures for wiretapping were reorganized. Even States with organized crime or narcotics problems, such as Illinois and Texas, have resisted police requests for wiretapping authority. The State-Federal eavesdropping relationship have been hostile in some States, particularly Nevada. Some jurisdictions do not prohibit police from purchasing eavesdropping equipment although the installation is illegal, thus encouraging the illegal police use of wiretaps. The FBI appears to have encouraged such ventures, particularly bootstrap operations where police obtain wiretap evidence illegally, ascribe the information to an anonymous informant, and then use it to apply for a wiretapping warrant.