by Patrick Appel
Ed Morrissey absorbs a disturbing new report from the federal judiciary on wiretap activity in 2010, which shows a 34% increase over 2009 (drug investigations account for “almost all” of the requests):
In over 3100 wiretap requests, only one judge — one — bothered to deny a request from police, even though only 26% of intercepts provided any incriminating information in the end. I’m not philosophically opposed to wiretaps if actual probable cause exists for law enforcement to pursue them, but given that the average number of individuals who unknowingly lose their privacy per wiretap has risen to 118, and only 26% of those orders provide any kind of usable evidence, it sounds like a pretty bad trade in terms of privacy. Put those numbers together, and we end up with 278,900 citizens having their privacy invaded in vain in 2010. That’s roughly the population of St. Paul, Minnesota.
The Dish 