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Surveillance And Crime In The Bay State
by Maureen Sirhal
Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly is calling on state lawmakers to expand his office's investigatory powers by making surveillance of e-mails and other online communications easier.
Bill Bloomer, an assistant attorney general, testified on behalf of the idea at a hearing in the state legislature's Joint Committee on the Judiciary last Thursday, where he urged lawmakers to pass a bill designed to revise the state's wiretapping law.
The measure, S.B. 933, would update the law's language to reflect advances in communications technologies and allow police to monitor a host of online communications. The bill also would allow police to gain wiretapping warrants for new crimes, including possession or use of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, or hoax substances; communication of terrorist threats; fraudulent use of credit cards; and certain crimes against children.
"The expanded crimes for which application for a wiretap warrant may be made reflect the reality of criminal threats to public safety in today's world," Bloomer told lawmakers.
The bill also would enable law enforcement groups to obtain "emergency" wiretaps within 48 hours. "Unlike a traditional search warrant, which can be obtained in a matter of hours, an application for a wiretap warrant generally takes two days," Bloomer explained. "In an extremely dangerous emergency, such as a child kidnapping or hostage taking, those two days could mean the difference between life and death."
He argued that the state's wiretapping rules have not been altered in more than 35 years and that with the growth in online technologies, law enforcers need new tools to detect criminal activity. He added that the measures would guard consumer privacy because police would have to apply for warrants and to define the activity for which they are intended.
"Each authorization lasts no longer than 30 days," and "status reports must be provided to the issuing judge at least every 10 days, and the judge has the authority to terminate the surveillance if he believes the requirements for the wiretap are no longer met," Bloomer said. But Internet service providers could be directed to help law enforcement officials install wiretaps under the measure, he indicated.
In other news from Massachusetts, Reilly's office announced last week that Nancy McDonald of Hudson, Mass., pleaded guilty to sending threatening e-mails to her former employer in October 2001. She was sentenced to two years probation and an anger-management program for the e-mails to workers at the software maker Endeca.
In her messages, McDonald threatened one worker with a knife and suggested that she would unleash anthrax on company premises. She sent an e-mail titled "Taliban" and warned workers at the firm to "watch their mail." McDonald worked for Endeca until July 2001.
Reilly's office also announced that Barnstable, Mass., resident Robert Whitty pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography on his home computer. Whitty, who served as Barnstable's chief assessor, downloaded the images on both his home and work computers and created Internet chatrooms to trade the materials. He was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail.
The Great Homeland Security Challenge
Despite dire budgetary constraints, some states are doing more for security with fewer resources, and Pennsylvania is one of them, according to Homeland Security Director Keith Martin.
Earlier this month, he told a state Senate committee that emergency-response organizations are finding ways to meet increased security mandates with fewer dollars. According to a prepared statement, Martin said state police, for example, are pushing new efforts to increase their surveillance and intelligence gathering in cooperation with the Pentagon and counterparts in New York and California "at virtually no cost to the state."
The state's emergency-response agency and regional counter-terrorism task forces are working in concert with state and local firefighters to help the groups apply for newly expanded federal grants, Martin added. He also highlighted the efforts of the National Guard, which has developed new training programs within localities without added resources.
He urged the committee to pass requested funding for homeland security projects. "I will do everything in my power to assure that we use every dollar fully and wisely and leave no stone unturned or resource untapped" to improve security, Martin added.
In other security news, the Colorado Senate has given preliminary approval to legislation intended to exempt security-related documents from the state's open-records law. The Denver Post reports that while the measure appears poised for full Senate passage, some lawmakers worry that the promised immunity from public scrutiny would be too broad.
"It leaves people to do things under the cover of homeland security that they shouldn't be doing," said Senate Minority Leader Joan FitzGerald, a Democrat.
Bill supporters, on the other hand, argue that the measure simply aims to ensure that counter-terrorism information does not get into the wrong hands.
Free At Last: Virginians Can Order Wine Online
A new Virginia law is expected to prompt growth in online wine sales.
Gov. Mark Warner last week signed into law a measure, S.B. 1117, that allows state residents to order wine directly from out-of-state vendors. The law, which takes effect July 1, was prompted by a federal ruling that killed the state's previous ban on direct out-of-state wine shipments.
Wineries located outside of Virginia must purchase $50 licenses to sell to Virginians and will be allowed to ship a maximum of two cases per month to consumers. The measure is similar to laws in 22 other states.
Study Ranks States' Legal Systems
A new poll released last week by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce found that the majority of states have fostered poor legal systems that increase the cost of doing business in the states.
Eighty-two percent of the more than 900 corporate attorneys surveyed by the chamber's Institute for Legal Reform and Harris Interactive said that state legal environments impact where businesses locate. About 65 percent of the respondents rated state legal systems as fair to poor, up nearly 10 percent from last year.
The poll found that Delaware, Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota and Indiana are perceived to have better liability systems, while the systems in Mississippi, West Virginia, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas ranked as the worst. The attorneys based their responses on criteria such as the treatment of class-action lawsuits, punitive damages and the fairness of juries.
The chamber is advertising the findings of its poll in several major newspapers nationwide.
"Our ad campaign highlights the terrible price of having a legal system that falls short," chamber President Tom Donohue said in a statement. "If state and local leaders work to improve their legal systems, they will bring great benefits to the people they serve -- more jobs, more investment and more revenues."
FBI Lauds North Carolina Tech Program
FBI Director Robert Mueller this week awarded Joan Myers, president of the North Carolina Electronics and Information Technologies Association, with a plaque and offered public recognition for her services to the FBI's InfraGard program in North Carolina.
InfraGard is a joint initiative between the FBI and businesses, academic institutions, state and local law enforcement agencies, and other groups that aims to improve the security of critical infrastructures, such as computer and telecommunications networks. Mueller said North Carolina has the largest InfraGard program in the nation.
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