NCJ Number
195395
Journal
Law Enforcement Technology Volume: 29 Issue: 5 Dated: May 2002 Pages: 46-52
Date Published
May 2002
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This article examines some of the ways in which criminals are using the latest high-tech electronics to impede legal surveillance and what law enforcement agencies must do in response.
Abstract
Current communications networks, from cellular and PCS to ISDN (Integrated Service Digital Network) and satellite, are routinely used in the commission of high-level criminal activity. Computers and networks allow millions of individuals to access daily a broad range of information services, databases, commerce, and communications capabilities that were unknown just 5 years ago. Even so, wiretaps remain one of the best ways to foil the most sophisticated, highest level crimes. Besides foiling terrorist plots, electronic surveillance is often the best way to crack high-level narcotics cases. The increasing use of the Internet by criminals, terrorists, and intelligence agents has presented law enforcement with new challenges in conducting court-approved interceptions and obtaining evidence and intelligence. Complicating matters, emerging digital technologies, such as packet data service, Internet telephony (Voice over Internet Protocol), digital subscription lines, cable Internet and telephony, wireless Internet, satellite communications, and others, are likely to be exploited by criminals. Packet data is probably the fastest growing and most imminent problem in surveillance today. Packet data is a digital means of breaking voice and/or data into blocks of 1's and 0's and sending the data over any available communications route to be reconstructed on the delivery end. Other developments that may pose problems for law enforcement are prepaid wireless phones, long-distance cards, push-to-talk, non-standardized delivery, and emerging digital technologies. To keep up with technology that criminals already have at their disposal, law enforcement must be equipped with tools for both Internet traffic as well as telephone switches that can accommodate digital court-authorized interceptions. Agencies must work together to establish standards of delivery methods and standards of delivery format, to understand what equipment to buy, and to limit escalating costs.