Electronic Surveillance

Technologies Continue to Pose Challenges Gao ID: T-AIMD-94-173 August 11, 1994

In 1992, GAO reported that the ability of law enforcement agencies to execute court-approved wiretaps was challenged by advanced telecommunications technology. To determine changes in the state of technology since that time, GAO interviewed representatives from law enforcement organizations, telephone service providers and manufacturing companies. These discussions revealed that although some technological solutions have been developed to facilitate law enforcement agencies' wiretap efforts, other technology changes have made it more difficult for them to use traditional wiretap methods. While these agencies are still able to conduct most court-approved wiretaps, they report that investigations were delayed or court orders simply were not pursued because of these problems. In addition, industry representatives told GAO that there are current and imminent technological situations that would be difficult to wiretap, even though they have not yet received wiretap court orders for those situations.



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