The number of wiretaps authorized by federal and state judges in criminal probes rose sharply during the first year of the Obama administration, increasing 26 percent from 2008 to 2009, according to a new report from the Administrative Office of the United States Courts.
Federal officials requested 663 wiretap orders and states sought 1,713 orders, for a total of 2,376 criminal wiretap orders last year — with 96 percent of wiretaps targeting mobile phones in drug cases.
Not a single request for a wiretap was turned down.
On average, each wiretap intercepted the communications of 113 people, meaning that 268,488 people had phone calls or text messages monitored, a new record, according to an analysis of the report by Wired.com.
A single wiretap related to a drug investigation in Arizona intercepted 31,062 messages over 71 days.
Each wiretap costs an average of $52,200, bringing the total bill to over $124 million for the year. But while the taps led to the arrest of 4,537 people, they resulted in just 678 convictions.
“Law enforcement officials have long warned that encryption technology allows criminals to hide their activities, but investigators encountered encrypted communications only one time during 2009’s wiretaps,” Wired.com reported.
The number of wiretaps in the report does not include wiretaps ordered in terrorism probes, which go through a special court in Washington, D.C., nor does it include communications intercepted by the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretapping program.
Created in 1939, the Administrative Office of the United States Courts provides a wide range of administrative, legal, financial, management, and information technology services to the federal courts.
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