🫥
Criminal Procedure • Exclusionary Rule
CRIMPRO#023
Legal Definition
Generally, wiretapping and eavesdropping require a warrant. However, there are two exceptions: (1) the unreliable ear or uninvited ear (i.e., one assumes the risk that the person they are speaking to either consents to government monitoring or is wearing a wire), and (2) where one makes no attempt to keep a conversation private.
Plain English Explanation
If criminals talk about crimes so loud that someone located in a place they are allowed to be can overhear and eavesdrop on those conversations, then no warrant is required to listen. In other words, cops can't hide outside someone's window and put their ear to the house to listen to what is going on outside, but if they can hear someone talk loudly from the public sidewalk or on the other side of a fence, then listening is fair game.
Additionally, though wiretapping a phone line requires a warrant, wiretapping a person does not (as long as they consent to it). In other words, if police place a wire on an informant, and a criminal chooses to confess crimes to that informant, the police don't need a warrant to listen or record from that wire. This is known as the "unreliable ear," meaning when you talk to someone else you always risk that the person may have agreed to wear a listening device.
Additionally, though wiretapping a phone line requires a warrant, wiretapping a person does not (as long as they consent to it). In other words, if police place a wire on an informant, and a criminal chooses to confess crimes to that informant, the police don't need a warrant to listen or record from that wire. This is known as the "unreliable ear," meaning when you talk to someone else you always risk that the person may have agreed to wear a listening device.
Related Concepts
What are special needs search exceptions to the warrant requirement?
What are the 5 exceptions to the fruit of the poisonous tree exclusionary rule?
What are the exceptions to the warrant requirement?
What are the Terry stop and frisk rules?
What does the 4th Amendment protect against?
What is a facially valid warrant?
What is the automobile exception to the warrant requirement?
What is the consent exception to the warrant requirement?
What is the evanescent evidence, and hot pursuit exception to the warrant requirement?
What is the exclusionary rule?
What is the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine?
What is the good faith defense to an invalid warrant?
What is the harmless error rule?
What is the plain view exception to the warrant requirement?
What is the search incident to arrest exception to the warrant requirement?
What is the stop and frisk exception to the warrant requirement?
When are police checkpoints valid?
When are police excused from knocking and announcing?
When does a person have automatic standing and a reasonable expectation of privacy in a 4th Amendment violation claim?
When do individuals have no standing and no reasonable expectation of privacy in a 4th Amendment violation claim?
When is a warrant based on a tip by an informant sufficient?
When is the exclusionary rule inapplicable?
