Digital Surveillance: The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act Page: 4 of 17
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Digital Surveillance: The Communications
Assistance for Law Enforcement Act
Background
In the early 1990s the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) asked Congress for
legislation to assist law enforcement agencies to continue conducting electronic
surveillance. The FBI argued that the deployment of digital technologies in public
telephone systems was making it increasingly difficult for law enforcement agencies
to conduct electronic surveillance of communications over public telephone
networks. As a result of these arguments and concerns from the telecommunications
industry, as well as issues raised by groups advocating protection of privacy rights,2
the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) was enacted on
October 25, 1994 (47 U.S.C. 1001-1021), in the final days of the 103rd Congress.
CALEA is intended to preserve the ability of law enforcement officials to
conduct electronic surveillance effectively and efficiently, despite the deployment of
new digital technologies and wireless services by the telecommunications industry.
CALEA requires telecommunications carriers to modify their equipment, facilities,
and services to ensure that they are able to comply with authorized electronic
surveillance. These modifications were originally planned to be completed by
October 25, 1998. Since that time, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
issued two additional orders establishing June 30, 2002, as the date by which
telecommunications carries must have upgraded all their systems.3 Equipment
manufacturers have fulfilled their obligation to provide CALEA solutions and
carriers are implementing them. The FBI and FCC continue to monitor and review
the implementation of this program.
In this report, the telecommunications industry includes common carrier telephone
companies, mobile wireless telecommunications providers, telecommunications equipment
manufacturers, and other entities that provide telecommunications services to the public.
2 Privacy rights groups involved in the CALEA debate include the Electronic Privacy
Information Center, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, advocacy groups which both
support on-line privacy rights of individuals, the Center for Democracy and Technology,
which also advocates electronic privacy (and is funded primarily by the telecommunications,
computer, and media industries), and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which
represents a broad array of civil rights based on the First and Fourth Amendments.
3 United States Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Communications
Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, Eighth Annual Report to Congress, November 30,
2002 (Eighth Annual Report), pp. 7-9.
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Figliola, Patricia Moloney. Digital Surveillance: The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, report, June 8, 2007; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc806158/m1/4/: accessed March 29, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.