Limited Use of Wiretaps OKd by Senate Panel

SACRAMENTO —  At the urging of Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner and other law enforcement officials, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved legislation Tuesday that would allow the use of wiretaps in certain investigations.

By a vote of 5 to 3, the committee approved a measure by Sen. Robert Presley (D-Riverside) that would allow law enforcement agencies in California to use electronic surveillance when investigating murder, kidnaping, narcotics trafficking and other major crimes.

“The wiretap is to be used as the investigative technique of last resort,” Reiner told the committee. “We’re talking about murder, extortion, kidnaping and large-scale criminal enterprises.”

Others Backing Bill

Reiner, joined by Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block, San Diego County Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller and a spokesman for Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp, testified on behalf of Presley’s bill.

Federal law enforcement agencies are allowed to tap telephone conversations, but the California Legislature has refused 10 times in the last 15 years to approve legislation extending that tool to local authorities.

The American Civil Liberties Union opposes the use of wiretaps on the grounds that it is an invasion of privacy and is not a cost-effective method of investigating crime.

Presley’s bill would allow wiretapping only in the investigation of murder, kidnaping, extortion, robbery, manufacture or the sale of narcotics, any crime involving the immediate threat of death or conspiracy to commit any of these crimes.

In order to obtain permission from a judge to tap a suspect’s telephone, a law enforcement agency must show in writing that other investigative techniques have not been successful.

In emergencies, the attorney general, his assistant or a district attorney could authorize a wiretap without a court order.

Wiretapping would be used “only for the serious, egregious, violent crimes and large-scale criminal enterprises--that means narcotics,” Reiner testified.

“As a practical matter, there is only one way you can effectively investigate and put together a prosecution of a large criminal enterprise, and that is to be privy to their oral communications,” he said.