T C.3: Intercept Capabilities
Improve the technical ability of law enforcement to ensure intercept capabilities are consistent with private industry’s advances
in technology.
Other Information:
Several mandates have been dictated to the FBI by Congress and oversight agencies. These responsibilities include but are
not limited to efforts to implement CALEA; and to vacate the microwave band from 1700 MHz to 1755 MHz as required by the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993. Advances in telecommunication technologies and services have impaired the Law Enforcement
Community’s ability to conduct fully effective, lawfully authorized electronic surveillance operations. CALEA was enacted
to preserve electronic surveillance operations as tools for investigating our nation’s most serious and violent offenses.
CALEA requires the telecommunications industry to proactively address law enforcement’s needs and directs the industry to
design, develop, and deploy technical solutions meeting certain assistance capability requirements, including capacity requirements.
CALEA authorized appropriations of up to $500 million to reimburse carriers for certain “reasonable costs” in complying with
the statute. Nearly nine years after its enactment, the statute has not yet been fully implemented. The industry has not adopted
the development and deployment of electronic surveillance capabilities as a basic element of providing service, and has resisted
full implementation of CALEA through multiple litigations, requests for extensions, and other means. By the end of 2004, we
expect only 40 percent of law enforcement priority switches to have CALEA technical solutions deployed. The FBI will work
with its law enforcement partners at all levels to foster relationships with individual carriers and their respective equipment
manufacturers, as well as to expand law enforcement’s understanding of technologies and services where industry-setting standards
do not exist or industry sectors have to date refused to develop technical standards. Priority Actions: Develop strategies
to motivate industry to implement CALEA. Ensure CALEA implementation team is staffed with technically trained agents familiar
with operational requirements as well as technical requirements.
Indicator(s):
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