re illegal wiretaps was denning s trust in article ppg i k bigboote wpi edu ear bigwpi wpi edu mr neat o tm writes it is apparently quite easy to get hold of a person s calling records through the phone company police and some lawyers are able to acquire such information without any warrant or judicial supervision whether or not the target is suspected of specific crimes pardon me but isn t this very illegal i was under the impression that a warrent is needed to get this information out of the phone company in order to protect people s privacy legal or not i ve seen it done phone records were obtained in order to establish probable cause rather than as a result of it in other words for a fishing expedition a local worcester ma police officer i spoke with only a couple of nights ago told me that they usually only subpeona the phone companies records in extreme conditions because it s so much of a hassle and does the phone company require written subpoena able evidence of probable cause in order to process the request i suggest that the officer was disinterested in pursuing your case even if you could prove the offender had called you at a certain time your chances of winning a harassment suit on the strength of this evidence are nil my contact with several people who have dealt with cases of extreme phone harassment several thousand calls in one case teaches me that police in this area are quite lethargic about pursuing such matters tal
