Wiretap Report 2023
This report covers wiretaps concluded between January 1, 2023, and December 31, 2023, that were reported properly to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.1 This report also provides supplementary information reported to the AO on arrests and convictions resulting from wiretaps concluded in prior years.
Forty-eight jurisdictions (the federal government, the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and 44 states) currently have laws that authorize courts to issue orders permitting wire, oral, or electronic surveillance. Table 1 shows that a total of 22 jurisdictions (including state and federal entities) reported using at least one of these types of surveillance as an investigative tool during 2023.
Summary and Analysis of Reports by Judges
The number of federal and state wiretaps reported in 2023 decreased 13 percent from 2022. A total of 2,101 wiretaps were reported as authorized in 2023, with 1,129 authorized by federal judges and 972 authorized by state judges. Compared with the applications approved during 2022, the number approved by federal judges decreased 11 percent in 2023, and the number approved by state judges decreased 14 percent.
In 21 states, a total of 104 separate local jurisdictions (including counties, cities, and judicial districts) reported wiretap applications for 2023. Applications concentrated in six states (California, New York, North Carolina, Nevada, Florida, and Pennsylvania) accounted for 85 percent of all state wiretap applications.
Eighty-two federal jurisdictions submitted reports of wiretap applications for 2023. The District of Utah authorized the most federal wiretaps, approximately 6 percent of the applications approved by federal judges.
Federal judges and state judges reported the authorization of 333 wiretaps and 54 wiretaps, respectively, for which the AO received no corresponding data from prosecuting officials. Wiretap Tables A-1 and B-1 (which are available online at http://www.uscourts.gov/statistics-reports/analysis-reports/wiretap-reports) contain information from judge and prosecutor reports submitted for 2023. The entry “NP” (no prosecutor’s report) appears in these tables whenever a prosecutor’s report was not submitted. Some prosecutors may have delayed filing reports to avoid jeopardizing ongoing investigations. Some of the prosecutors’ reports require additional information to comply with reporting requirements or were received too late to include in this document. Information about these wiretaps should appear in future reports.
Wiretap Orders, Extensions, and Locations
Table 2 presents the number of wiretap orders issued in each jurisdiction that provided reports, the number of extensions granted, the average lengths of the original periods authorized and any extensions, the total number of days in operation, and the locations of the communications intercepted. Federal and state laws limit the period of surveillance under an original order to 30 days. This period, however, can be lengthened by one or more extensions if the authorizing judge determines that additional time is justified.
During 2023, the average reported length of an original authorization was 30 days, the same as in 2022. The average reported length of an extension was also 30 days. In total, 1,388 extensions were reported as requested and authorized in 2023, an increase of 2 percent from the prior year. The Western District of Pennsylvania (PA-W) conducted the longest federal wiretap that was terminated in 2023. One original order in PA-W was extended 9 times to complete a 280-day wiretap used in a narcotics investigation. An order in the Southern District of Indiana was extended 6 times to complete a 210-day wiretap in a conspiracy investigation. For state intercepts terminated in 2023, the longest wiretap occurred in Monroe, New York, where an original order was extended 26 times to complete a 733-day wiretap used in a narcotics investigation.
The most frequently noted location in reported wiretap applications was “portable device.” This category includes cell phone communications, text messages, and application software (apps). In 2023, a total of 95 percent of all authorized wiretaps (1,993 wiretaps) were reported to have used portable devices.
Prosecutors, under certain conditions, including a showing of probable cause to believe that actions taken by a party being investigated could have the effect of thwarting interception from a specified facility, may use “roving” wiretaps to target specific persons by using electronic devices at multiple locations rather than at a specific telephone or location (see 18 U.S.C. § 2518(11)). In 2023, a total of 38 reported federal and state wiretaps were designated as roving.
Criminal Offenses
Drug offenses were the most prevalent type of criminal offenses investigated using reported wiretaps. Table 3 indicates that 50 percent of all applications for wiretaps (1,051 wiretap applications) in 2023 cited narcotics as the most serious offense under investigation. Applications citing narcotics combined with applications citing other offenses, which include other offenses related to drugs, accounted for 81 percent of all reported wiretap applications in 2023. Conspiracy, the second-most frequently cited crime, was specified in 11 percent of applications. Homicide and assault, the third-largest category, was specified as the most serious offense in approximately 5 percent of applications. Many applications for court orders revealed that multiple criminal offenses were under investigation, but Table 3 includes only the most serious criminal offense listed on an application.
Lengths and Numbers of Wiretaps
In 2023, reported installed wiretaps were in operation for an average of 45 days, 3 days longer than the average in 2022. The federal wiretap with the most intercepts occurred during a murder investigation in the Eastern District of California and resulted in the interception of 579,572 messages in 104 days. The state wiretap with the most intercepts was a 733-day wiretap for a narcotics investigation in Monroe, New York, which resulted in the interception of 708,046 messages. See Table A-1 and Table B-1 for data on lengths and numbers of intercepts.
Encryption
The number of state wiretaps reported in which encryption was encountered increased from 192 in 2022 to 238 in 2023. In 218 of these wiretaps, officials were unable to decipher the plain text of the messages. A total of 234 federal wiretaps were reported as being encrypted in 2023, of which 207 could not be decrypted.
Cost of Wiretaps
Table 5 provides a summary of expenses related to wiretaps in 2023. The expenditures noted reflect the cost of installing wiretap devices and monitoring communications for the 1,217 authorizations for which reports included cost data. The average cost of a wiretap in 2023 was $1,711,436, up 1,6512 percent from the average cost in 2022. In Suffolk, NY, the cost of a 180-day state wiretap conducted to investigate an illegal drugs offense that resulted in 29 arrests totaled $354,940,034. For federal wiretaps for which expenses were reported in 2023, the average cost was $105,754, a 9 percent increase from 2022. In the Eastern District of Texas, the cost of a 90-day federal wiretap in an illegal drugs investigation totaled $2,357,350.
Methods of Surveillance
The three major categories of surveillance are wire, oral, and electronic communications. Table 6 presents the type of surveillance method used for each wiretap installed. The most common method reported was wire surveillance, which accounted for 54 percent (920 cases) of the intercepts installed in 2023.
Arrests and Convictions
Data on individuals arrested and convicted as a result of wiretaps reported as terminated are presented in Table 6. As of Dec. 31, 2023, a total of 5,530 persons had been arrested (up 5 percent from 2022), and 456 persons had been convicted (down 17 percent from 2022). Federal wiretaps were responsible for 43 percent of the arrests and 28 percent of the convictions arising from wiretaps for this period. PA-W reported the most arrests for a federal district in 2023, with wiretaps there resulting in the arrest of 503 individuals. The Northern District of Ohio reported the most convictions for a federal district in 2023, with wiretaps there resulting in the conviction of 15 individuals. State wiretaps were responsible for 57 percent of the arrests and 72 percent of the convictions arising from wiretaps for this period. Suffolk, New York, reported the largest number of arrests (724) and convictions (111) arising from a state wiretap in 2023.
Summary of Reports for Years Ending Dec. 31, 2013, through Dec. 31, 2023
Table 7 presents data on wiretaps requested and authorized each year from 2013 to 2023. Total authorized intercept applications reported by year decreased 59 percent from 5,127 in 2013 to 2,101 in 2023. Most wiretaps during that period were used for narcotics investigations, which accounted for 87 percent of intercepts authorized in 2013 (3,115 applications) and 50 percent in 2023 (1,051 applications). Table 9 presents the total number of arrests and convictions resulting from intercepts terminated in calendar years 2013 through 2023.
Supplementary Reports
Under 18 U.S.C. § 2519(2), prosecuting officials must file supplementary reports on additional court or police activity occurring as a result of wiretaps reported in prior years. Because many wiretap orders are related to large-scale criminal investigations that cross county and state boundaries, supplemental reports are necessary to fulfill reporting requirements. Arrests, trials, and convictions resulting from these interceptions often do not occur within the same year in which the intercepts are first reported. Table 8 shows that 4,204 arrests, 1,173 convictions, and additional costs of $2,625,874,248 arose from and were reported for wiretaps completed in previous years. Thirty-two percent of the supplemental reports of additional activity in 2023 involved wiretaps terminated in 2022. Wiretaps concluded in 2022 led to 46 percent of arrests, 18 percent of convictions, and 97 percent of expenditures noted in the supplementary reports.
1 Reports of wiretaps submitted to the AO using forms WT-2A or WT-2B that passed all of the AO’s data quality checks were considered complete data submissions and are included in the Wiretap Report. When reports failed the AO’s data quality checks and thus were not complete data submissions, the wiretaps reported were not entered into the AO’s database, as the reports raised data quality issues significant enough to interfere with the AO’s ability to process the report. Reports of wiretaps that are not complete data submissions are not included in the Wiretap Report.
2 The percent increase is due to Suffolk, NY reporting cost totaling 4.5 billion.
| Title | Publication Table Number | Reporting Period | Publication Name | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intercepts of Wire, Oral, or Electronic Communications Authorized by U.S. District Courts and Terminated | Wire A1 | December 31, 2023 | Wiretap | Download Table Wire A1—Appendix Tables Wiretap (December 31, 2023) (xlsx, 370.79 KB) |
| Intercepts of Wire, Oral, or Electronic Communications Authorized by State Courts and Terminated | Wire B1 | December 31, 2023 | Wiretap | Download Table Wire B1—Appendix Tables Wiretap (December 31, 2023) (xlsx, 143.25 KB) |