Federal and state courts reported a combined 26 percent decrease in authorized wiretaps in 2020, compared with 2019, according to the Judiciary’s 2020 Wiretap Report. Convictions in cases involving electronic surveillance also decreased (article available here).
The report covers wire, oral, or electronic intercepts that were concluded between Jan. 1, 2020, and Dec. 31, 2020, exclusive of interceptions regulated by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. The report is submitted annually to Congress by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
A total of 2,377 wiretaps were reported as authorized in 2020, compared with 3,225 the previous year. Of those, 1,297 were authorized by federal judges, an 8 percent decline from 2019. State judges authorized 1,080 wiretaps, a 40 percent decrease from the previous year.
Portable electronic devices, which includes cell phones, accounted for 95 percent of applications for intercepts. Drug offenses were the most prevalent type of crime investigated using intercepts. Seventy-seven percent of all wiretap applications in 2020 cited narcotics as one of the offenses under investigation. Conspiracy was the second-most frequently cited crime (13 percent of total applications), and racketeering was the third largest category, cited in 5 percent of applications.
The Southern District of New York authorized the most federal wiretaps, accounting for about 5 percent of applications approved by federal judges. Applications in six states accounted for 74 percent of all wiretaps approved by state judges. Those states were New York, New Jersey, Nevada, North Carolina, Colorado, and Florida.
The District of Arizona conducted the longest federal intercept that was terminated in 2020. An order was extended eight times to complete a 257-day wiretap in an immigration investigation.
The average cost of a wiretap in 2020 was $119,418, up 59 percent from $75,160 the year before. The numbers include the cost of installing intercept devices and monitoring communications.