landrews (landrews) wrote in little_details,
landrews
landrews
little_details

Revealing court-ordered surveillance to suspect in the US

My novel is set in West Virginia, USA. A detective has returned fire on and killed the boy-toy of the wealthy and very well-connected son of a six-time congressman and Speaker of the House. Subsequent to being informed he may have charges brought against him, the detective finds himself under open surveillance. His best friend is researching to write a book on a closed child murder that took place in her rental house. She is partially motivated by two new murder cases with similar circumstances that have occurred near her house. Her house is ransacked and the files and interviews she obtained have been stolen. Outside her house, the detective approaches the men following him to ascertain who they are working for and find out if they also have his friend's house under surveillance since he has been living there. They are FBI. As it's not required by law, they do not have a court-order for the video surveillance of the writer's home, but they do have one for audio and a GPS transponder on her vehicle. If asked directly by the writer, do they have to reveal and present the court-order for covert surveillance? (I'm hoping for yes- and the agents are also sympathetic to the detective's case, but Daddy has pull- I can make them private goons if need be :-))

I have read lots about covert surveillance, the Going Dark proceedings, the use of informants for surveillance, privacy laws, and the FBI lawsuits brought by EFF for by-passing court orders and searched with 'legality of covert surveillance' 'court ordered surveillance' 'informed consent, court ordered surveillance' 'court ordered surveillance, informing suspect' 'requirements of revealing covert surveillance' 'requirements of revealing court ordered surveillance', those last two with 'to suspect' added. And whatever else I though up[, lolol, but I must be missing a keyword because I can NOT find the answer to my question :-)
Tags: ~government (misc), ~law (misc), ~law enforcement (misc)
Subscribe

  • Post a new comment

    Error

    switch
    default userpic
    When you submit the form an invisible reCAPTCHA check will be performed.
    You must follow the Privacy Policy and Google Terms of use.
    Help
  • 4 comments