Federal judges authorized 569 wiretaps and state judges authorized 617. Federal judicial districts for Los Angeles, northern Illinois and southern Florida also reported large numbers. The taps were placed primarily on ordinary phones but increasingly on cellular phones, pagers, e-mail and fax machines. The procedure for law enforcement officers to obtain a warrant permitting a wiretap or dispensing with a warrant is spelled out in 18 U.S.C. 2518. Any person whose wire, oral or electronic communication is intercepted, disclosed or used in violation of the Wire Interception law can sue for damages.
Records show that only one wiretap warrant application has been denied in the past ten years.