The total number of wiretaps by state

With all the NSA paranoia running amuck, sorting out the facts from fiction should slightly reduce the likelihood of coronaries caused by unnecessary worrying. We know Verizon and other telephone service providers retain call logs for our buddies at the NSA, but where exactly do we stand with wiretaps? Have you ever had the suspicion that some “malevolent” third-party entity was snooping around that one time your call was “crossed” with somebody else’s? Well, relax buddy, there aren’t that that many wiretaps going around. In fact, if you don’t live in the states of Nevada, Colorado, California, and New York, which combined account for half of the nation’s total wiretapping activities, you can really relax. 

According to a new report from the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts, which outlines the number of authorized wiretappings in 2013, Nevada is the number one state with the most taps per person in the entire nation. This figure represents 38.2 taps per 500,000 people. Rest assured, 90% of wiretap authorization requests cite drug-related offenses as the motivating factor, with the remaining 10% split between homicide and smuggling. 

California, New York, Nevada, and Florida have the highest percentage of wiretaps authorized for mobile devices; California’s 26% is more than double New York’s 12%, and four times Nevada's and Florida’s 6%. It should come as no surprise that these four states account for half the total number of wiretaps as they hold a quarter of the total U.S. population; California alone is the most populous state in the United States.

 
Via Pew Research