How important is wiretapping to law enforcement agencies?
Electronic surveillance is just one of many investigative techniques available to law enforcement. In fact, it is not a widely used technique — in 1992, fewer than 900 wiretap warrants were issued to state and federal law enforcement agencies. It is to protect the viability of that small number of wiretaps from an unsubstantiated risk that the FBI and NSA have proposed to compromise the security of billions of electronic transactions.
