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Tampa Federal Criminal Defense Attorneys: What is a wiretap?

Wiretaps are essentially recording equipment which record all phone calls made to/from a certain phone number. As you can imagine, these matters are highly contested in Florida, both at a Federal Court and State Court level. Wiretaps are commonly used in major criminal enterprises, often associated with RICO investigations. These RICO investigations and prosecutions can take place at either the State and/or Federal level. Obviously though, wiretaps are much more common at the Federal level than the State level. A wiretap in Florida will also require approval by a judge because of concerns that others will be unknowingly recorded on a wiretap. Obviously, the court is concerned about innocent third-parties being recorded discussing matters totally unrelated to the alleged criminal activity.

It is worth noting though that Florida law limits specifically which crimes, law enforcement must be investigating, before they can seek a wiretap through Florida’s Statute Section 934.07(a). In this Statute, the Florida legislature identified the following crimes, which are the only crimes that law enforcement can be investigating to request a wiretap. The crimes are: Murder, kidnapping, aircraft piracy, arson, gambling, robbery, burglary, theft, dealing in stolen property, criminal usury, bribery, or extortion; any violation of Florida State Statute 790.161-790.166, Florida State Statute 787.06, Chapter 893 (which deals with possession of controlled substance), Florida’s Anti-Fencing Act, Chapter 895, Chapter 896, Chapter 815, Chapter 847, Florida State Statute 827.0171, Florida State Statute section 944.40 and/or any conspiracy or solicitation to commit any violation of law in the state relating to any of the above referenced crimes. Obviously, this was Florida Legislation attempting to limit Florida’s law enforcement agencies, including the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, to only apply for wiretaps in very serious cases.  They obviously had concerns that law enforcement would abuse this power.

If you have questions about wiretaps or the illegal collection of evidence in your criminal matter, contact the Tampa Federal Criminal Defense Attorneys of Hackworth Law for a free case consultation. We will sit down with you and determine an aggressive to challenge the evidence acquired by law enforcement and State Attorney’s office against you.  If you would like to contact one of our Tampa Federal Criminal Defense Attorneys immediately, use the “Contact Us Now” tab in the upper right-hand corner of our website. Our chat box is also available in the lower right-hand corner of our website, if you would like to contact one of our Tampa Federal Criminal Defense Attorneys immediately.  We appreciate your time in checking out our Tampa Federal Criminal Defense Attorney blog and look forward to working with you in the future.