Challenging Police Wiretaps

On Behalf of | Sep 24, 2015 | Police Wiretaps

As has previously discussed, How the government gets a Wiretap Police Wiretaps are one of the most intrusive tools that the police have in the “War on Drugs”. Wiretaps permit the police to listen to all of the phone calls made by a specific phone which relate to criminal conduct. If you have been charged with drug crimes as a result of a wiretap placed either on your or someone else’s phone, you will almost certainly have to hire an attorney who knows what laws the police have to abide by in order to get a wiretap. The results and evidence from a wiretap can be kept out of Court, if your Criminal Defense Lawyer can show that the government didn’t obtain the wiretap properly

So what can an experience criminal defense lawyer do to keep out the evidence from wiretaps? An experienced criminal defense attorney can file a motion to suppress the evidence that the police obtained from their wiretap. Specific challenges that can be made to police wiretaps are as follows:

First, your lawyer can argue that the police did not have probable cause to believe that tapping your phone line will help them to solve a serious crime, such as drug trafficking,

Second, your lawyer can argue that the police did not show that they either unsuccessfully exhausted all other less intrusive means of investigation, or that those other means are too dangerous. What this means is that the government has to show that they tried other ways to catch the defendant committing a crime before they put a wiretap on his phone. Wiretaps are so intrusive into the privacy of the defendant that the Courts try and limit how often wiretaps are used.

Third, your lawyer can argue that the police did not have probable cause to show that the “Target” of the investigation would be using the phone that was wiretapped.

Finally, your lawyer can argue that the government kept the wiretap in place for a period longer than was necessary for them to achieve the objective of the wiretap.

Hire an experienced Drug Lawyer

FindLaw Network

Categories

Archives