Policy Text
University of California, San Francisco
Police Department General Orders
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5.2 Criminal Investigations: Operations
5.2.17 Telephone Traps (Revised: 8/1/14)
The UCSF Police Department often investigates crimes that involve the use of telephones.
Telephone service providers assist law enforcement agencies investigate these crimes. The
service involves "telephone trapping" and "tracing live calls." Telephone Service providers will
provide this service to law enforcement agencies free of charge under the following conditions:
A. Cases that Involve an Eminent Threat To Life ( not a standard threatening call) ‒ This
normally involves placing a live trace on the line. A trace is when a telephone service
provider identifies a caller's location/telephone number. The caller must be on the line
with another party during the time the trace is conducted.
B. Annoying Telephone Calls as Defined in PC § 653(m) ‒ Th is normally involves placing a
trap on a telephone line. A trap is when a telephone service provider monitors a telephone
line over a period of time and compares a victim's log of telephone calls with telephone
records to identify an annoying caller. Unlike a trace, the caller does not have to be on the
line.
C. Watch Commanders may contact telephone service providers and request assistance for
tracing a live call when there is reasonable cause to believe that there is an eminent threat
to life. Such cases may include life threatening situations, threats of suicide, injured
persons who cannot communicate effectively and kidnapping or hostage situati ons. A
person must be on the telephone continuously in order to conduct a trace. Traces can take
anywhere from five minutes to two hours. The Watch Commander shall notify the Chief
of Police and Investigations Unit of the live trace as soon as practical.
D. Telephone traps shall only be coordinated by the Investigations Unit. Telephone service
providers will provide telephone traps on hang -up, harassing, obscene or threatening calls
with an unknown suspect:
1. Generally, there must be a pattern of calls ov er the course of several days or
weeks. Several calls in one day may not be appropriate for a trap.
2. An annoying/harassing telephone call, PC § 653(m), report must be
made and the victim must be willing to prosecute.
E. The victim will be asked by telephone service providers to log calls for approximately 14
days. This waiting period may be waived for life threatening calls. In order for telephone
service providers to succ essfully obtain the identification of the caller, three calls must be
made from the same telephone number.
F. Officers investigating PC § 653(m) incidents should not automatically suggest to victims
that a telephone trap may be obtained. Each officer sho uld assess the specific facts
University of California, San Francisco
Police Department General Orders
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reported in each incident. Normally, telephone service providers will not place phone
traps without there being a threat to life when citizens call them directly , and, even then ,
a fee will be assessed.
G. If the officer cond ucting the initial investigation of PC § 653(m) determines that a phone
trap may be appropriate, the officer will:
1. Inquire with the requesting person if they wish to have a phone trap installed.
2. If the answer is yes, issue the requesting person a co py of three forms: the phone
trap authorization, the phone log sheet and the instruction sheet.
3. If no trap is requested, and then advise the requesting person a phone trap may be
considered in the future.
4. Instruct the requesting person to have the De partment hea d or other authorized
employee of the receiving Department sign the authorization form.
H. Advise the requesting person that the phone trap authorization form will be sent to the
UCSF Investigations Unit who will contact telephone service pro viders.
I. Advise the requesting person that they will be contacted by the Investigations Section
when the phone trap has been installed by telephone service providers.
J. Once the phone trap is installed, the requesting person will need to record all "s uspicious"
calls on the phone log, as well as call telephone service providers immediately after each
suspicious call.
K. The officer conducting the investigation will telephone the Investigations Unit during
normal business hours and advise them of the phone trap request. The investigating
officer will fax a copy of the signed authorization form to the administrative fax for
processing. The original authorization form should be attached to the original report.
L. If the request for the trap occurs durin g weekends and/or holidays, the investigating
officer will deliver a copy of the completed report, along with the signed authorization
form, to the Investigations Unit, which will process the request on the next business day.
The officer will also leave a voice mail message for the Investigations Lieutenant or send
an e-mail advising him of the request.
M. Once a phone trap has been installed, any further follow up with the reporting party shall
be conducted through the Investigations Unit. Officers may indicate this on their follow
up forms.