WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission has asked the wireless, privacy and law enforcement communities to help it justify digital wiretap technical capabilities that some of those groups did not want in the first place.
Meanwhile, the FBI’s lead man on implementation of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act of 1994, H. Michael Warren, has left the agency to create a consulting firm affiliated with the telecom industry’s law firm.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Aug. 15 told the FCC that it had better explain its rationale for four of the six punch-list items it said industry needed to include in the CALEA implementation technical standard.
The case was appealed after the FBI convinced the FCC that it needed six of nine additional capabilities-known as punch-list items. Two of the capabilities were not appealed. Telecom and privacy groups fought the punch list.
The court also sided with the industry when it told the FCC that it had to better justify the costs that would be associated with including the additional punch-list items. Now the FCC is asking the industry to help it with that justification.
“We also seek comment on the definition of the term `cost-effective methods,’ how cost effectiveness should be measured in relation to the four punch-list capabilities,” said the FCC in a public notice.
Comments are due Nov. 16 and replies Dec. 1.
Helping the industry with its comments will be Warren, who left the FBI in June after 29 years to help create Telecommunications and Law Enforcement Associates, a telecommunications consulting practice in conjunction with the law firm of Steptoe & Johnson.
“Companies that are wrestling with the intricacies of CALEA don’t just need lawyers if they want to understand law enforcement’s concerns and priorities; they need to talk to someone who has actually been on the other side of the fence. Mike Warren will fill that niche,” said Stewart Baker, and industry attorney with Steptoe.
