Commonwealth v. Schaeffer

CIRILLO, President Judge:

This case concerns the legality of a technique of electronic surveillance known as “participant monitoring,” or using a body wire to surreptitiously record a person’s conversations. The issue is whether, under the Pennsylvania Constitution, the police need a search warrant based on probable cause to send a confidential informer into the home of an individual to electronically record his conversations and transmit them back to the police. We hold that article I, section 8 of our constitution, which protects the right of the people to be secure from unreasonable…