Opinion ID: 777634
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Pager Wiretap

Text: 23 Between March and August 1994, the district court also issued a series of orders authorizing the interception of communications to and from Lacy's and Flowers' digital display pagers. The pager communications intercepted in the Flowers investigation were recorded in a handwritten log. Both investigations also made some attempt to record the intercepted data through the use of a pager receiver computer. Neither the handwritten logs nor the records of the pager receivers were sealed at any time. Appellants contend these failures warranted suppression. The only basis upon which appellants challenge the admissibility of the pager evidence is under § 2518(8)(a); they do not argue inadmissibility on other grounds. 24 The district court's finding that the handwritten logs were not recordings is a question of law reviewed de novo. See Wright, 215 F.3d at 1025. The district court's finding that recording using pager receivers was not possible is a mixed question of law and fact. We review such questions de novo. Mayfield v. Woodford, 270 F.3d 915, 922 (9th Cir.2001) (en banc).
25 We address first whether the government was required to seal the handwritten logs. Section 2518(8)(a) requires recordation on tape or wire or other comparable device  (emphasis added). As we have said, the purpose of the recordation provision, as well as the companion sealing requirement, is an evidentiary one — to ensure the reliability and integrity of the contents of intercepted communications. As subsection (8)(a) provides, [t]he recording... shall be done in such way as will protect the recording from editing or other alterations. We think, therefore, that Congress' use of the word comparable means comparably reliable. Tape and wire recorders ensure reliability because they are mechanical, minimize human involvement and limit the opportunity for intentional alteration and human error — characteristics not readily attributable to handwritten logs. Here, moreover, the logs were made contemporaneously only where possible. We therefore agree with the Fourth Circuit that transcribing by hand in a log book the images appearing on a display pager is not recording on a comparable device within the meaning of subsection (8)(a). United States v. Suarez, 906 F.2d 977, 983 (4th Cir.1990). 5
26 We turn to whether recording of the contents of the pager interceptions was possible through use of the pager receivers. When properly programmed, the pager receiver is tuned to the frequency of a pager and receives a data stream from the pager company containing the digital display message, the date and time of the message and a code relating to the pager. The receiver has the capacity to store the data streams in an archive file on its hard drive that can be printed or transferred to a storage device such as a floppy disk. Although pager receivers were a relatively new technology in 1994, appellants offered undisputed evidence that they were employed effectively by the San Francisco office of the FBI — the same office leading the Flowers investigation — in its so-called North Beach investigation both before and during the Flowers and Lacy investigations. Agents in that investigation reliably intercepted pager messages, printed the contents of the archive file and sealed them in accordance with § 2518(8)(a). Based on this record, we conclude that the district court erred by concluding that recordation through the use of the pager receivers was not possible. The record here indicates that the pager receivers were comparable devices within the meaning of § 2518(8)(a). 6 27 Decisions holding recordation of digital display pager interceptions impossible are distinguishable. In Suarez, the Fourth Circuit held that recordation was impossible, but considered only handwritten logs and did not discuss pager receivers at all. 906 F.2d at 983-84. In United States v. Paredes-Moya, 722 F.Supp. 1402 (N.D.Tex.1989), rev'd in part and aff'd. in part on other grounds by United States v. Guerra-Marez, 928 F.2d 665 (5th Cir. 1991), the court found that the recording device that the DEA attempted to use (presumably a pager receiver) was a relatively new technology that failed to work, and that defendants had failed to show that there was a device available that the government intentionally or otherwise failed to use. Id. at 1407. Here, the North Beach investigation demonstrates otherwise.
28 We nonetheless conclude that the government offered a satisfactory explanation for its omissions because the government's belief that pager receivers were not recorders within the meaning of § 2518 was objectively reasonable in light of the decisional law we have just cited. The record also indicates that the agents running the investigation became aware of the full capacity of the receivers to receive and store messages only after the surveillance was terminated. The district court's denial of appellants' motion to suppress the digital display pager evidence therefore is affirmed.