Wiretap Requests From Federal and State Authorities Fell 14% In 2011

coondoggie writes "Federal and state court orders approving the interception of wire, oral or electronic communications dropped 14% in 2011, compared to the number reported in 2010. According to a report issued by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts a total of 2,732 wiretap applications were authorized in 2011 by federal and state courts, with 792 applications by federal authorities and 1,940 applications by 25 states that provide reports. The reduction in wiretaps resulted primarily from a drop in applications for intercepts in narcotics offenses, the report noted."

Except you can't do that

[daveschroeder]

The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 clearly specifies that an properly adjudicated, individualized warrant from a court is required to collect, process, analyze, store, or disseminate the content of the communications of a US Person. While it seems to be common belief that you can just "call someone a terrorist and tap their phones," this is in fact false.

If you think the government will just ignore the law and do whatever it wants anyway, then any discussion of the law is moot.

Re:[Citation needed]

[poetmatt]

really? How much proof do you need?

http://epic.org/privacy/nsl/#stats [epic.org]

NSL's are almost never even constitutional, so "not legal" wiretaps. Yet they're on an order of magnitude higher. 2700 wiretaps vs 8500 before the patriot act and 140k after the patriot act?

They shifted from legal methods (harder to obtain) to sanctioned but clearly illegal methods (simple to obtain, no judicial oversight, no perjury or accountability).

Re:[Citation needed]

[Anonymous Coward]

NSL's are requests for information, not wiretaps.

Re:This doesn't mean the amount of wiretaps have d

[Creepy]

The NSA can legally wiretap anyone without a warrant as long as they make up a reasonable story for why they were wiretapping that person (they have Al Quida on speeddial! [because we planted it there]), and then share it with the FBI.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSA_warrantless_surveillance_controversy [wikipedia.org]

Re:[Citation needed]

[pushing-robot]

* FISA wiretaps peaked in 2007 at ~2400. The past few years have averaged ~1600, an increase of ~75% since before the WTC attack.
* NSLs =/= wiretaps. From the site you linked:

What Types of Information Can Be Obtained by NSLs?
Telephone and E-mail Records: "Toll records," a historical record of calls made and received from land lines, cell phones, and other sources, of a specified phone number, as well as billing records associated with that number. E-mail records, including e-mail addresses and screen names associated with the requested account and the e-mail addresses and screen names who have contacted that account. Also includes billing records and methods of payment for each account.
Financial Records: Financial information, including open and closed checking and savings accounts, from banks, private bankers, credit unions, thrift institutions, brokers and dealers, investment bankers and companies, credit card companies, insurance companies, travel agencies, casinos, and others. For a full list, see 31 U.S.C. 5312(2).
Credit Information: Full credit reports, names and addresses of all financial institutions at which the consumer has maintained an account, and identifying information of a consumer (limited to name, address, former addresses, and past and current employers).

* You're comparing the number of NSLs in a single year to the number of NSLs in three years put together.
* Those three years are 2003-2005. According to more recent information: [go.com]

The new Justice Department letter dated April 30, 2012 also notes that the FBI issued 16,511 National Security Letters (NSL) to obtain certain records and information in investigations. The letter asserts that the requests were for investigations relating to 7,201 different US persons. The number of National Security Letters declined dramatically from 2010 when the FBI had sought 24,287 NSLs.

You might want to adjust that tinfoil hat; it seems to be cutting off circulation to your brain.