On the recordMay 21, 2002
I believe it was in the first week in which I operated as an assistant district attorney in Dauphin County in Pennsylvania when I had the duty of supervising an investigation and a court setting for a case evolving from wiretapping; and it happened to be a sex case, although not one involving children. That is when I learned for the first time in on-the-job training that no wiretap will be used in court or is usable in court if it is not predicated by a court order. So the judge has the ability to look over and has oversight on every single phase of the reaching out to the telephone wires by a wiretap. This I think is the answer to the concern of the gentleman from Virginia when he relates that it should be more than helpful to the law enforcement agencies, but absolutely necessary in his description of when a wiretap should be used. I say to him that it is the court which will decide whether it is merely helpful or necessary.
Source
govinfo.gov
