Less Than Half of Wiretap-Related Arrests Lead to Convictions

Friday, May 01, 2009

The Administrative Office of the United States Courts has released statistics on non-terrorism-related wiretap reports from 1998 to 2008 showing that much of the spending on wiretap technology might not be cost-effective. Wiretaps installed between 1998 and 2008 have, at best, produced convictions from just half of the arrests they led to. In 2008, 4,133 people were arrested as a result of wiretaps, but only 810 were convicted. The average cost per order of wiretaps is $47,624, with federal wiretaps skyrocketing to $70,536. Most of the targets are suspected of dealing drugs. In 2008, 95% of wiretaps involved mobile phones or pagers, and, on average, they lasted for 29 days.

-Emma Nagy, David Wallechinsky
 

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