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DOJ IG Audit Report on Electronic Surveillance

The Implementation of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, Audit Report 06-13, [Redacted] March 2006 (PDF)

  • Executive Summary: “Criminal organizations and individuals frequently use the telecommunications systems of the United States to further serious violent crimes, including terrorism, kidnapping, extortion, organized crime, drug trafficking, and public corruption. One of the most effective tools law enforcement uses to investigate these crimes is court-authorized electronic surveillance. However, continuing advances in telecommunications technology have impaired and in some instances prevented telecommunications carriers from assisting law enforcement in conducting court-authorized electronicsurveillance….The OIG initiated this audit to: (1) review CALEA implementation costs and progress; (2) review the impediments to CALEA implementation, including the effects of emerging technologies; and (3) determine how the implementation of CALEA, or lack thereof, impacts federal, state, and local law enforcement in its ability to conduct electronic surveillance….CALEA requires telecommunications carriers (carriers) to modify the design of their equipment, facilities, and services to ensure that law enforcement can perform electronic surveillance (for purposes of this report, the term electronic surveillance is used only in the sense of the real-time interception of information).”
  • Justice Dept. Report Cites F.B.I. Violations: “The Federal Bureau of Investigation found apparent violations of its own wiretapping and other intelligence-gathering procedures more than 100 times in the last two years, and problems appear to have grown more frequent in some crucial respects, a Justice Department report released Wednesday said.”
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