People v. Viscomi’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 2 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The Supreme Court has told us that the requirement is “simply designed to assure that wiretapping is not resorted to in situations where traditional investigative techniques would suffice to expose the crime,” and while traditional surveillance techniques need not be exhausted first if they are “impractical” or costly and inconvenient, nevertheless Congress — and, we may add, the New York legislature— evinced the clear intent to make doubly sure that the statutory authority be used with restraint_These [wiretap] procedures were not to be routinely employed as the initial step in criminal investigation. Rather, the applicant must state and the court must find that normal investigative procedures have been tried and failed or reasonably appear to be unlikely to succeed if tried or to be too dangerous. To this end, both the New York and the federal statute require a “full and complete statement” explaining whether other investigative procedures have been tried and have failed, or appear “unlikely to succeed” or are “too dangerous.” Although the required showing is to “be tested in a practical and commonsense fashion,” an affidavit offered in support of a wiretap warrant must provide some basis for concluding that less intrusive investigative procedures are not feasible.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 16 F. Supp. 2d 364 - Yanez v. Keane

2. “Treating the People’s showing in a practical and commonsense fashion in the context of the objectives of the investigation as delineated in the application, I find that the court did not abuse its discretion in issuing the warrants. The applications show that the police used traditional investigative techniques to make three purchases of cocaine from a drug seller at the street level. These techniques were unsuccessful in revealing the identity of suppliers higher in the chain of illicit drug distribution and in gathering evidence against them. The seller of the cocaine had exhibited extreme wariness of police surveillance and was suspicious of the undercover officer who had made the purchases. It was obvious that he was unlikely to reveal the source of his supplier to the undercover officer and further surveillance of him was not only dangerous, but it would be unlikely to lead to information necessary to identify and convict his supplier and other wholesale distributors.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 16 F. Supp. 2d 364 - Yanez v. Keane

3. “At the outset it is important to recall that a wiretap is a most serious invasion of privacy and individual liberty. The tapping of a person’s telephone invades the privacy of every other person whom that person may call or who may call him. Our application of CPL 700.15[4], therefore, must be sensitive to the constitutional guarantees against search and seizure that the statute seeks to protect and the statute must be strictly construed. Electronic surveillance is appropriate only when necessary and is “not to be routinely employed as the initial step in a criminal investigation.” Thus, no eavesdropping warrant may issue absent “a showing that normal investigative procedures have been tried and have failed, or reasonably appear to be unlikely to succeed if tried, or to be too dangerous to employ” (CPL 700.15[4]; see also, 18 U.S.C. § 2518 [l][c]).”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 16 F. Supp. 2d 364 - Yanez v. Keane