POLICING OF CELL PHONES EXPANDED

FCC Rules Authorities Can Now Monitor The Location Of Users

WASHINGTON -- Over the objections of civil liberties groups and
privacy advocates, the federal government Friday announced new
technical standards for cellular phones that will broadly expand the
ability of law enforcement agents to monitor conversations and locate
suspects.

Federal and local agents can already monitor cellular phone calls with
a court warrant. But under the rules announced Friday by the Federal
Communications Commission, they will also be able to determine the
general location of a cell phone user by identifying which cellular
antenna was used by the phone company to transmit the beginning and
end of any call under surveillance.

The rules will permit agents to identify all callers on a conference
call and monitor such conversations even after the target of the
inquiry is no longer part of the conversation. And agents will be able
to determine if suspects are making use of such common cellular phone
features as call forwarding and call waiting.

Although the number of intercepted communications approved by federal
and State courts over the last decade has nearly doubled, reaching
1,329 last year, law enforcement officials say they have had
difficulty keeping up with the explosive popularity of cellular
phones. Senior officials at the FBI have spent years seeking new
authority beyond just monitoring the calls as mobile phones have
become inexpensive and ubiquitous.

At the same time, privacy advocates have warned that broadening the
ability of law enforcement to monitor more than simply the content of
such calls would be deeply intrusive. Law enforcement officials have
asserted that since the location of wired telephones was already
public information, there is no intrusion of privacy in determining
the location of wireless phones.

The telephone industry was also resistant to change and had sought to
delay some of the technical changes in their systems that were
announced Friday on the ground that they would be too expensive to
implement. Industry executives said Friday they would be unable to
meet the regulators' timetable, and would seek permission to delay
complying with the new rules.

Friday's ruling was a clear victory for the law enforcement groups and
a setback for the privacy organizations. The decision follows years of
fruitless negotiations between the phone companies, the Justice
Department, privacy groups and telecommunications regulators that
began in 1994, after Congress approved major legislation called the
Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act.

It required the cellular phone industry to design its systems to
comply with new standards that would make it easier for the FBI to
monitor calls. But the law left it to the FCC to determine the precise
contours of those standards, as well as the FBI's ability to monitor
more than just the conversations.

Industry executives said that while they believed the new rules went
beyond what was authorized in the law, they would comply with them.

"The wireless industry now can build and implement these capabilities,
but we require a realistic deployment schedule, one that the industry
can plan for and meet," said Tom Wheeler, president of the Cellular
Telecommunications Industry Association. Some of the rules become
effective next June 30, and others on Sept. 30, 2001.

Senior officials at the Justice Department, meanwhile, applauded the
rules, saying they would be a powerful new tool in combatting crime.

"The continuing technological changes in the nation's
telecommunications systems present increasing challenges to law
enforcement," Attorney General Janet Reno said. "This ruling will
enable law enforcement to keep pace with these changes and ensure we
will be able to maintain our capability to conduct court-authorized
electronic surveillance."

Louis Freeh, the director of the FBI, said the decision by the FCC was
"an extremely important and positive public safety ruling."

"From the FBI's perspective, the FCC's announced ruling goes a long
way to balance public safety, privacy and the needs of
telecommunications carriers to remain competitive in today's market,"
Freeh said.

Officials at the FCC said they had struck the appropriate compromise
between law enforcement interests against privacy concerns.