State versus federal wiretap orders: A look at the data

Jason Chan, Jin-Hyuk Kim and Liad Wagman

International Review of Law and Economics, 2022, vol. 70, issue C

Abstract: Federal and state law enforcement interceptions of communications, as authorized by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and analogous state laws, are contingent on obtaining a court order. We investigate how wiretap orders have been utilized in narcotics cases across the federal and state court systems. We characterize a sorting mechanism that is consistent with our data and empirical findings, whereby federal wiretap orders trade off prosecution outcomes and crime deterrence more quickly than state wiretap orders. We also find that the intensity of surveillance in most states and years is at the lower end of the enforcement-deterrence trade-off, reflecting the high cost of running wiretap operations.

Keywords: Law enforcement; Surveillance; Wiretap; Privacy; Federalism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: K14 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:irlaec:v:70:y:2022:i:c:s0144818822000205

DOI: 10.1016/j.irle.2022.106064

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