ROTC for law enforcement?

Law enforcement officers "wire taping" people?

• What constitutional issues are involved while wiretapping if law enforcement officers only get a warrant for drugs and law enforcement hears other crimes being committed during the wire tapping? What could law enforcement officers do then? Can they start arresting other people for different crimes that were heard on that wire tap? My uncle thinks if law enforcement officers get a warrant for “only drugs” to wire tap some one that and they hear other things other than drugs; they can investigate other crimes and arrest other people for different things. I say, law enforcement cannot. Who is right?

• Answer:

  What you are talking about is called "search and seizure". If they have enough information to place an authorized tap on your telephone they are not required to ignore other information which may be disclosed by implementing the original court order. If the information is of such a nature that it warrants further investigation, the original order should be amended to cover the new (or additional) direction of the investigation. A police officer is not required to ignore information he obtained through lawful means. He may, however, need additional authority if the investigation that justified the original warrant exceeds the limiting factors of the original authorization.