JUNEAU — The Alaska State Troopers conducted two wiretaps last year while investigating homicide, a new report from the Alaska Department of Law reveals.
The taps, authorized by a judge in April, were under the supervision of Alaska State Trooper Investigator Timothy Cronin, and while the report says they were done in connection to a murder investigation, it does not say which case or cases involved wiretaps.
The report does not say whether either wiretap resulted in an indictment or charges. Cronin did not immediately respond to an email and phone call seeking further details. Troopers traditionally have declined to discuss ongoing investigations.
Under Alaska law, the state is required to report to the Legislature the number of wiretaps it conducted the previous year. While wiretaps have been authorized under state law since 1993, the state failed to file those reports until last year, when the Juneau Empire published an article outlining the state’s failure to follow the law.
Reports released subsequent to that article revealed the state has conducted relatively few wiretaps: three in 2015, none in 2016 and four in 2017. The state has never released information about any wiretaps conducted between 1993 and 2015 but told the Empire last year that it is unaware of any wiretaps before 2015.
Under Alaska law, someone in a conversation can legally record it, even without the knowledge of the other people in the conversation. If someone isn’t part of the conversation, they cannot “use an eavesdropping device to hear or record all or any part of an oral conversation without the consent of a party to the conversation.”
The state’s wiretapping law allows a court to bypass that law and authorize an “eavesdropping device” if police have probable cause, the attorney general requests it and the case involves a serious crime, such as murder.
Federal law also permits judges to authorize wiretaps, but annual reports filed by the U.S. Department of Justice show they are rare in Alaska. None took place between 2015 and 2017, the latest year for which statistics are available. One took place in 2014, four in 2013 and none in 2012.