The number of federal- and state- court approved interceptions of wire, oral or electronic communications grew by 34 percent in 2010 over the year before, says the administrative office of the United States Courts.

An annual report released in July by the administrative office puts the number of such taps at 3,194; federal taps constituted 1,207 of the total, with states making up the balance.

Only 25 states reported their data to the administrative office in time to be included in the report, however. The report does not include interceptions authorized under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, "or interceptions approved by the President outside the exclusive authority of the federal wiretap law and the FISA," notes the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

The average length of  intercepts during 2010 was 29 days, with the longest intercept occurring in the Southern District of California, where an original order was extended six times in a narcotics investigation for a total of 210 days.

State law enforcement encountered encryption six times when executing a wiretap, the report says, in all cases they nonetheless obtained the plain text of the communications.

As of Dec. 31, 2010, 4,711 persons had been arrested as a result of interceptions, up 4 percent from 2009. 800 persons had been convicted, up 18 percent; 2010 wiretaps led to 37 percent of those convictions. Federal wiretaps were responsible for 48 percent of the arrests, the report says.

For more:
- go to the Administrative Office of the United State Courts webpage for wiretap reports

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