Keywords
wiretapping, RCMP, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, surveillance, law enforcement, Canada, laser beams, electronic rays, bugs, microphones, parabolic microphones, combination mirror
Abstract
Wiretapping and electronic surveillance by law enforcement agencies has been going on in Canada for decades. An inquiry by the McDonald Commission in 1981 reveals this as part of normal activities of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.' Now new technologies have enlarged the capacity of police in the surveillance area. Some of these developments include: 1) Laser beams and electronic rays capable of picking up and transmitting voices in the room when aimed at a walt or window. 2) Miniature listening devices known as "bugs". Once installed these devices can overhear and record everything in the room and transmit up to half a mile away. 3) Miniature microphones that can be worn on an individual who engages in conversation with the suspect. 4) Wiretapping - the interception of telephone communications. This involves a connection to the wires over which conversation is taking place. 5) Parabolic microphones that can overhear without being placed in the premises. 6) Combination mirror - transmitter capable of picling up both sight and sound.
Recommended Citation
Norman MacDonald, "Electronic Surveillance in Crime Detection: An Analysis of Canadian Wiretapping Law" (1987) 10:3 Dal LJ 141.
