State v. Faford

— Wayne C. Fields eavesdropped on his neighbors’ telephone conversations twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week over several months. Had he used an electronic eavesdropping device to tap a landline to a conventional telephone, Washington’s privacy act (RCW 9.73) would have undoubtedly prohibited Fields’ private surveillance activities. Like many Washington citizens, however, the targeted neighbors were speaking on a cordless telephone, not a conventional telephone. Fields purchased a police scanner specifically to eavesdrop on the radio portion of those cordless telephone conversations…