Reading Room Document

Emergency Authority to Electronic Surveillance

This memo examined the use of electronic surveillance in the then-recent hostage situations in Puerto Rico, concluding that, because the hostage situation did not pose a threat to national security, the Wiretap Act authorized emergency surveillance only if the situation involved “conspiratorial activities characteristic of organized crime.” The memo urged legislative action to clarify the FBI’s emergency authority to act in this area.

August 3, 1978