WHEREAS, the Communication Assistance for Law Enforcement Act was passed by Congress in 1994 and has not been amended in over 15 years to address the number and diversity of current and emerging communication technologies; and

WHEREAS, the Federal Communications Commissions CALEA First Report and Order issued in August 2005 and CALEA Second Report and Order issued in May 2006 were not sufficient to ensure that law enforcement maintains electronic surveillance capabilities in the rapidly evolving communication age; and

WHEREAS, according to the Cellular Telephone Industry Association there were more than 822 billion text messages in the second half of 2009 with over 1.5 trillion for the year, the number of multimedia messages more than doubled in the past year with more than 24.2 billion reported in the last half of 2009, wireless data revenues rose 25.7 percent from the last half of 2008 to reach more than $22 billion in the last half of 2009; in addition, there are now 257 million data capable devices in consumers hands, 50 million of which are smart or phones or wireless PDAs, up from 228 million at the end of 2008; and

WHEREAS, third and fourth generation communication networks including Long Term Evolution (LTE) and Wi-Max are or will be deployed by the end of 2012; and

WHEREAS, the means of engaging in wireless communications has expanded beyond the cellular telephone network and increasingly involves using publicly available or free Wi-Fi access without requiring a subscription or other traditional means of identifying the user; and

WHEREAS, the number and diversity of communication applications, such as Voice over Internet Protocol and text messaging, available through application stores is growing exponentially; and

WHEREAS, law enforcement does not have adequate financial and technical resources to pay for the development and maintenance of electronic surveillance capabilities on emerging communication technologies; and

WHEREAS, the cost and disparity between companies charges for electronic surveillance assistance and disclosure of records is already adversely impacting law enforcements ability to investigate criminal organizations; and

WHEREAS, the drug related violence and crime plaguing America from major cities to rural communities is a serious public safety issue; and

WHEREAS, the members of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) recognize the importance of domestic and international drug law enforcement efforts as part of an overall strategy to reduce drug demand and dependency in the United States; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, that the IACP recognizes the effectiveness that electronic surveillance used by federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement authorities has had on attacking the command and control structure of narcotics trafficking organizations within the United States; and, be it

FURTHER RESOLVED, that the IACP strongly supports efforts to update the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act to ensure that law enforcement maintains its ability to conduct electronic surveillance by requiring companies that provide individuals with the ability to communicate also provide law enforcement with the ability to intercept those communications in a timely and cost effective manner.

Submitted by: Narcotics & Dangerous Drugs Committee
NDD.023.a10