TEXT MESSAGING LETS DEALERS TAP INTO SILENCE

As Chicago cops sat in their "wire room" at Homan Square, monitoring
telephone calls during last year's investigation of the Four Corner
Hustlers gang, they heard what sounded like a number being dialed on one of
the eight phones they'd tapped. But they heard no voices.

The suspect, it turned out, was sending a text message over a cell phone --
thus the silence. But the investigators could not see the words that were
being transmitted, either.

State law prohibits law enforcement agencies from intercepting text
messages, e-mails and faxes during wiretaps. So the Chicago Police
Department automatically blocks those communications with computer software.

"It happened several times, and we were lost," police Lt. John Rowton of
the Narcotics and Gang Investigation Section said of the Four Corner
Hustlers case.

"As a lieutenant, how'd you like to hear a deal going down on a phone call
and then start having the guy make text messages?" Rowton said. "At the
time you have people in the wire room, you also have physical surveillance
to monitor what this clown is doing on the street. But you can't hear what
he's saying. For all we knew, they could have been arranging to take $1
million from here to there."

Cook state's attorney backs plan

In the Four Corner Hustlers probe, officers had obtained wiretaps on eight
phones between June and September, Rowton said. The 10-month undercover
operation shut down an open-air heroin market on the West Side. Dozens of
people were charged, including Varocco Foy and Pierre Nero, high-ranking
heroin suppliers for the Four Corner Hustlers, authorities said.

Although the inability to view text messages did not ultimately harm the
investigation, it left investigators blind at the time, Rowton said.

To avoid such situations that put drug dealers ahead of the cops with
advances in technology, the Cook County state's attorney's office is
pushing Senate Bill 74 to expand the Electronic Criminal Surveillance
statute, originally passed in 1989.

Wiretaps are a relatively rare tool in the Cook County justice system.
Investigators must seek approval from the chief judge and prove they've
exhausted other investigative techniques.

Unlike their federal counterparts, who can intercept any new telephone
technology during court-approved wiretaps, state law only permits law
enforcement agencies to monitor "oral communication."

Senate Bill 74 would scratch the word "oral" from the law so cops can
intercept text messages, e-mails and faxes.

Gangs are talking in code

"The gangs are just as sophisticated as any Fortune 500 company in using
technology," said Scott Seder, an assistant Cook County state's attorney
and a legislative liaison. "They use all sorts of electronic means to
communicate. A lot of times they are talking in code. They may type in two
words to indicate a drop. We need to be able to intercept this stuff right
away."

Tactical officers who conduct street-level operations said drug dealers
seem to be shying away from talking about their criminal activity on cell
phones.

"Every single day we see guys using text messages," said Chicago Police Lt.
Robert Stasch of the tactical unit in the Town Hall District. "Ninety
percent of the guys we deal with communicate by text message or e-mail. A
lot of informants will show us their phones and they've gotten text
messages with codes for the drug and the price and the weight."

Stasch, who is combatting rising methamphetamine sales in his district,
said a common text message by someone selling methamphetamine would be:
"Tina is 28 years old and weighs 100 pounds."

"Tina" is code word for methamphetamine. "Twenty eight years" means 28
grams. And "100 pounds" means $1,000.

The buyer would respond with a text message like: "I would like to meet
Tina at 3 p.m. at Addison and Halsted," Stasch said.

"A lot of these guys are not picking up phones and talking to each other
now," he said. "I'd like to know that [under the law] I could tap into
Johnny Jones' phone and recover text messages. We need to stay ahead of
these guys."

Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois,
said the group is studying Senate Bill 74 and does not yet have a position
on it.

"We are concerned with any extension of surveillance authority because it
has the potential, especially given new technologies, to erode privacy for
individuals," he said.

The ACLU wants to make sure the bill would protect the communications of
people who aren't targets of a criminal investigation and maintain judicial
oversight of wiretaps of text messages and other new technology, Yohnka said.