State Wiretaps Outnumber Federal 3-To-1
FILE - In this March 15, 2000 file photo, master flatpicker Doc Watson talks about his long and successful musical career at his home in Deep Gap, N.C. Watson, the Grammy-award winning folk musician whose lightning-fast style of flatpicking influenced guitarists around the world for more than a half-century, died Tuesday, May 29, 2012 at a hospital in Winston-Salem, according to a hospital spokeswoman and his management company. He was 89. (AP Photo/Karen Tam, File) / KAREN TAM
State investigators listened in on more than 3 million phone conversations last year as local prosecutors sought a record number of wiretaps, mostly to investigate drug crimes.
As the federal government has focused its resources on national security investigations, the responsibility for drug investigations — the focus of 80 percent of wiretaps — has fallen to state and local authorities.
A decade ago, federal and state investigators sought about the same number of wiretaps. Last year, state prosecutors obtained nearly three times as many wiretap authorizations as their federal counterparts: 1,378 to 461, according to an annual report by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
Before tapping someone's phone, prosecutors must persuade a judge there is probable cause to believe the person is breaking the law. No federal or state judge denied such a request last year. Of the more than 15,000 applications filed in the last decade, only five were denied.
Technological advances have made it easier for local investigators to tap telephones and cell phones.
"It can be done from a central switching station rather than climbing poles and messing with wires the way it was in the '70s," said Clifford S. Fishman, a former New York City drug prosecutor and a Catholic University law professor.
While state wiretapping has grown steadily more common, the number of federal wiretaps has remained relatively constant since 2000. Approvals for national security wiretaps, which are not counted alongside traditional wiretaps, have risen steadily over that period.
California led the nation with 430 wiretap applications, followed by New York with 377 and New Jersey with 189.
© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. As the federal government has focused its resources on national security investigations, the responsibility for drug investigations — the focus of 80 percent of wiretaps — has fallen to state and local authorities.
A decade ago, federal and state investigators sought about the same number of wiretaps. Last year, state prosecutors obtained nearly three times as many wiretap authorizations as their federal counterparts: 1,378 to 461, according to an annual report by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
Before tapping someone's phone, prosecutors must persuade a judge there is probable cause to believe the person is breaking the law. No federal or state judge denied such a request last year. Of the more than 15,000 applications filed in the last decade, only five were denied.
Technological advances have made it easier for local investigators to tap telephones and cell phones.
"It can be done from a central switching station rather than climbing poles and messing with wires the way it was in the '70s," said Clifford S. Fishman, a former New York City drug prosecutor and a Catholic University law professor.
While state wiretapping has grown steadily more common, the number of federal wiretaps has remained relatively constant since 2000. Approvals for national security wiretaps, which are not counted alongside traditional wiretaps, have risen steadily over that period.
California led the nation with 430 wiretap applications, followed by New York with 377 and New Jersey with 189.
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Odd that the reporter conveniently left out which party affiliation all of these State Attorney Generals are connected too.
I seriously doubt that CA, NJ & NY have Repubs in as top law enforcers ... so I guess moveon and all the other foolish bomb throwers neglected to do their homework ...
I guess the bottom line is if your not breaking the law, then you have nothing to fear ... which is the way it should be ...
They can listen to my conversations any time.
We are living in a country that we can no longer own our own property, we rent it from the government by paying taxes on it and if we don't pay our rent (tax) the government takes it away. If we don't pay our tabs on our vehicles we can't drive it, it becomes a giant yard ornament, unless you live where there is a development association and then it is a nuisance and you get fined and or get sued. If you keep all the money you earn, you get thrown in jail with fines.
We have a little dictator with his warrantless this and eavesdrop that, WMDs, sending soldiers to a civil war that he opened the door to, miss information, wrong information, closed door energy meetings, backing people that fire others for not being Bushies. I don't know the Dems are anymore than a full step behind him by adding all that pork spending to the war finance bill that got vetoed, sham on our leaders, sham on all of you.
The Government will never legalize anything that anyone can grow themselves because they have no way to tax it. The Government will never end the war on drugs because it is too profitable for them to keep it going. When have you ever heard of a Federal, State or local agency laying people off because business was slow?
What would happen if all the reserve soldiers came home from Irac and Afghanistan with the *rappy economy? It would drive up unemployment. War is a great way to line the pockets of the connected people (Halliberton).
You're misguided on the issue of drug users and drug dealers.
I had a sister who was addicted to crack cocaine. In order to get her fix whenever she needed/wanted it, she would steal as much as she could from me, from my parents, from anyone whenever she thought she could get away with it, at least for the short term. Because of her addiction, she caused a lot of serious problems for a lot of people, not least of whom where those close to her. This nightmare stopped only when she was eventually caught and forced to face up to her actions.
Drug dealing/abuse enforcement should not be relaxed.
Cops say legalize marijuana!
http://www.leap.cc
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
the difference is that there is a paper trail from the state wiretaps. Unfortunately this admin feels no need to get permission to wiretap.
I'd like to see the figures comparing pre 9/11 to post 9/11. I'd hope they have risen. If not at least the same:
1) the dept. of homeland security isn't doing it's job.
2) they're doing a whole lot more undocumented spying than we could have ever imagined.
either way, there's a whole lot of explaining to do.
***??
America USE to have a thing called FREEDOM.
Freedom of Speech.
Freedom of Religion.
Right to Bear Arms.
Habeous Corpus.
Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness...
before the Dark Days. Before The EMPIRE