Domestic Wiretaps Down in 2008 (including FISA)

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Domestic wire­taps have dropped by 14 per­cent from 2007 to 2008. FISA wire­taps are down as well, although the rea­sons are unclear.

Pursuant to the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, the Administrative Office of the United States Courts reports that:

A total of 1,891 appli­ca­tions to fed­eral and state judges for orders autho­riz­ing the inter­cep­tion of wire, oral or elec­tronic com­mu­ni­ca­tions were reported in 2008. No appli­ca­tions were denied. This is a 14 per­cent decrease in the total of appli­ca­tions reported, com­pared to 2007.

Interestingly, 84 per­cent of requests dealt with drug-​​related inves­ti­ga­tions. Another fact from the report? Only 19 per­cent of inter­cepted com­mu­ni­ca­tions were incrim­i­nat­ing in 2008, ver­sus 30 per­cent in 2007. The last time a wire­tap autho­riza­tion was denied was in 2005, and it’s been since 1998 that more than one has been denied in a sin­gle year.

These 1,891 are reg­u­lar, court-​​approved wire­taps (both state and fed­eral), not those issued pur­suant to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (or pres­i­den­tial order or other secret wire­taps). In con­trast, accord­ing to the 2008 FISA Annual Report to Congress, there were 2,083 appli­ca­tions for espionage-​​related wire­taps, with the FISA court deny­ing only one such request. (Reports from 1979 to 2008 are avail­able.) In 2007, there were 2,371 FISA wire­tap requests, with three denials.

So, to sum­ma­rize the numbers:

So, the ques­tion remains: why the decrease? (Or is it sim­ply ran­dom chance?) I find it inter­est­ing that more FISA war­rants were issued than reg­u­lar fed­eral and state wire­tap war­rants com­bined. Curious, no?

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