Court Opinion

ID: 9669443
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 02:56:14.817758+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:56.804577
License: Public Domain

DAVIES, Judge
(concurring specially).
I concur in the result, but respectfully offer a different analysis.
The pen register statute, Minn.Stat. § 626A.36, subd. 2, is designed to balance the privacy interests of the public against the investigatory needs of the police. I think a balance, consistent with the act, is met by permitting use of pen register records in this case independent of the application for a search warrant relied on by the majority.
Obtaining the information provided by a pen register intrudes minimally into the subject’s privacy interest. The substance of telephone conversations is not revealed, only the numbers called. If those numbers suggest criminal involvement, the police *52can pursue the matter with warrants for searches and telephone taps. If the pen register information suggests no involvement, this will, in many cases, turn the police to other suspects, thus contributing ultimately to the privacy interests of the person involved. It also saves police resources that would otherwise be wasted on a wild goose chase.
The objective of the legislature passing the pen register act in 1988 and amending it in 1989 was to avoid random access to pen register information. Once the police officer in charge of the investigation establishes that a specific criminal investigation is involved and that facts and circumstances justify use of the' pen register on the targeted phone, the public is protected from random checks by pen register.1
Reading the specific statutory language is helpful. In 1989 the legislature made the following amendment, shown by underlining:
An investigative or law enforcement officer with responsibility for an ongoing criminal investigation may make application.
1989 Minn.Laws ch. 336, art. 1, § 9, subd. 1. The effect of this change was to require that the responsible investigating officer make application to the court. That requirement was satisfied in this case. The next amended subdivision required that the application include:
(1) the identity of the law enforcement or investigative officer making the application, the identity of any other officer or employee authorizing or directing the application, and the identity of the law enforcement agency conducting the investigation; and
(2) ⅝-certification-by the applicant -that the information likely to be obtained is relevant- to an ongoing- criminal-investigation being conducted by that agency a statement of the facts and circumstances relied upon by the applicant to justify the applicant’s belief that an order should be issued.
1989 Minn.Laws ch. 336, art. 1, § 9, subd. 2. Paragraph (1) was clearly satisfied here, and paragraph (2) was satisfied, in my view, with the statement in the application that the
applicant has received information via a confidential source, that an illegal sports bookmaking operation is being conducted over the telephone lines of [numbers].
That should be sufficient to satisfy the statutory requirement.
The majority comes close to requiring a “probable cause” showing to implement pen register access. Nowhere in the legislation do the words “probable cause” appear. The legislature meant something less. It meant, in my view, the kind of showing that was made in this case.

. If the legislation required the destruction of the pen register information obtained when the information proved irrelevant, rather than just sealing the record, privacy interests would be even better protected.