Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Survivors urge carve-out to wiretap law; ACLU warns against expanding surveillance powers
Summary
The committee heard competing testimony: victims and family-law advocates asked for a narrow carve-out to the state wiretap statute to allow recordings by abuse victims to be used in court; the ACLU and civil-liberties witnesses opposed broad expansions of wiretap authority.
Senator Michael Moore and others introduced proposals to amend Massachusetts wiretap law during the Sept. 9 hearing, prompting sharply divided testimony. Supporters urged a narrowly tailored exemption to permit victims of harassment, threats or abuse to record conversations when the recording is necessary to prove criminal conduct. “For many of these individuals, recordings of the abuse that they have endured is their only means of getting the evidence that they need,” Senator Patrick O’Connor said when introducing the proposals.
Several survivors described how the threat of wiretap prosecutions had left them criminally exposed after recording…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
