Phone Surveillance Rules

CK - Washington.   One of the many revised German laws that entered into force on January 1, 2008 governs the expanded authority for phone taps in the criminal procedure code. The statute is available from Bundesanzeiger Verlag as a PDF with the title Statute for the Reform of Telecommunications Surveillance and Other Concealed Means of Investigation as well as the Implementation of EU Directive 2006/24/EU, in German. The core sections of the statute amend the code of criminal procedure, Strafprozessordnung, in §100 StPO. Phone tapping is authorized in the event of certain suspicions of severe criminal activities if other means o…