Revealing court-ordered surveillance to suspect in the US

[landrews]

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

Comments

[clarice]

Different warrants have different requirements; warrants for covert, ongoing searches like a wiretap need not be declared or presented. If the suspect is charged, the incriminating evidence has to be turned over, but law enforcement is not required to be honest about having obtain a warrant for secret surveillance while the suspect is free.

[landrews]

yay! An answer! On the flip side- they aren't required to be honest, but if they are, does it matter to anyone but their lead investigator as to whether or not it was the wrong move to reveal the warrant to the suspect?

[clarice]

Tipping off a suspect can get you charged with obstruction of justice. It's always the wrong move, and it's never a field agent's call. It would be a very big deal for an agent to purposefully blow covert surveillance, and even if they avoided obstruction charges, it's career suicide. The FBI does not have to investigate and they're picky about cases they take (and the conviction rate for federal crimes is incredibly high; they are in it to win it and play accordingly). They would not take a routine non-federal crime like this without a really good reason, and they wouldn't screw around with the investigation.

[landrews]

Awesome! Thank you so much!