The costs of these wiretaps are also a huge issue in the arguments that have to do with law enforcement wiretaps. All of the new bills dealing with wiretaps that are in the works state that all of the reasonable costs incurred by the phone companies would be paid by the federal government (Edwards and Boucher). However, these modifications can't start without the help of the federal government because without the funding, the phone companies can't modify their systems to help out the FBI (Munro). In Bill Munro's article for Inside Washington, he had statements from telephone company officials about the current situation. 'We've never opposed funding… because we are the recipients of such funding,' said one industry official. However, 'there's no commercial value to it' because the money flows through the telephone companies to the companies that produce and modify the electronic switching gear, he said. The phone companies have now come up with a plan that they believe to be fair. Their compromise is that the government should pay for all of the installation of such devices and should be handled by the government (Edwards and Boucher). One thing that should be noted is the fact that these costs paid by the government with taxpayers' money are not cheap. Leonidas R. Mecham, Director of the Administrative office of the United States Courts agrees that these wiretaps are expensive. According to his records, there were 1,232 intercept orders in 1999 for which costs were reported and the average cost per order was $57,511. While the average cost of a federal wiretap order cost $73,616 per order. With cooperation from the phone companies, the costs of these wiretaps is likely to go down after all the proper devices are installed, but the cost to keep up with new technology will be tremendous. I think that it is the responsibility of the government to pay for all of these outrageous costs, but I do think that the money could go toward more important things in our country.

There are at least two sides to every controversy, and the issue of wiretaps definitely brings more than two sides to mind. However, the two main arguments that have to do with wiretaps have to do with protection and privacy. The privacy issue has been escalating more and more in the past few years. "The government has been asking for more wiretapping authority than it ever has before," explained Shari Steele, director of legal services for the EEF ("electronic privacy"). Steele states, "Just as more of our communications are becoming digital, law enforcement is getting even greater access. Whatever privacy balance we may have achieved in the past is completely decimated due to the interpretation of new legislation." Wiretaps have been used in the past to catch criminals, but now the government is pushing for legislation to be able to tap any phone that they think is being used in criminal activity. They call this method a roving wiretap. According to Chris Stamper, Greg Nojeim, member of the American Civil Liberty Union council, argues that since roving wiretaps will be easier to obtain, citizens' Fourth Amendment rights protecting against illegal searches will erode. "We are now at a historic crossroad," says Barry Steinhardt, Associate Director of the American Civil Liberties Union, "we can use emerging technologies to protect our personal privacy, or we can succumb to scare tactics and to exaggerated claims about the law enforcement value of electronic surveillance and give up our cherished rights, perhaps - forever ("Groups")." Wiretap issues have posed a threat to privacy since 1968 due to technological advances. Congress even made a statement about privacy back then. According to the 1968 report, "the tremendous scientific and technological developments that have taken place in the last century have made it possible for widespread use and abuse of electronic surveillance techniques. As a result of these developments, privacy of communication is seriousl

Some topics in this essay:
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