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Criminal Resource Manual

91. Title III Procedures - Attachment B

COMMON TITLE III APPLICATION PACKET DEFICIENCIES

  1. The application packet contains internal inconsistencies, e.g., as between the affidavit, the proposed order and the application, the target lists do not match.
  2. The supporting affidavit contains stale toll/pen records, or such records are missing altogether. Toll/pen records must be no more than 10 days old.
  3. The necessity and exhaustion sections of the affidavit contain boilerplate language with no reference to the specific case at issue.
  4. The supporting affidavit does not sufficiently establish the qualifications of confidential informants referenced therein, or does not sufficiently address why the confidential informant is in a position to know that which the affidavit alleges he or she knows.
  5. The application and supporting affidavit fails to establish separate probable cause and minimization procedures for electronic communications (e.g., text messages, faxes and the like) as opposed to wire communications. Probable cause for wire communications is not sufficient to obtain intercepts of electronic communications.
  6. The supporting affidavit for an extension or "spinoff' request does not contain sufficiently detailed factual support, i.e., it fails to quote the underlying intercept and/or to provide characterizations of inexplicit statements or coded language.
  7. The supporting affidavit is over-inclusive, containing irrelevant or peripheral facts unrelated to the target facility or probable cause.
  8. The extension request is submitted immediately before the underlying authority expires; requests for extensions should be submitted as soon as possible after the AUSA determines that an extension will be required.

    [updated July 2008] [cited in Criminal Resource Manual 89]