"Let me call in a buddy of mine. He's an expert on wiretaps."
Las Vegas authorities use electronic wiretaps more than almost every other police agency in the country, according to a new report. Clark County judges approved 187 wiretaps on phones in 2013, and police executed 178, according to the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts.
All of the wiretaps were for drug investigations. That’s a lot of wiretapping, especially when you factor the county’s population, compared to metro areas at least four times larger.
Los Angeles County judges approved 148 wiretaps last year. New York City’s special narcotics bureau had 138 wiretaps approved.
Pew Research Center analyzed the data and determined — based on population — that the Silver State leads the nation with 38 phone wiretaps per 500,000 people in 2013.
No other state saw more than 12 wiretaps per 500,000 people, according to the nonpartisan think tank. So why are Nevada’s numbers so high... (more)