ExecSecurity reported a couple weeks ago about a case in King City, CA, where the city manager was accused of eavesdropping on conversations between the police chief and other parties. This monitoring was suspected of being accomplished through improper use of telephone system features.
The town took the steps to have their phone system vendor investigate the phone system. The vendor’s report indicates that they did not find and physical wire taps or improper wiring connections, but the report explains that features of the system could have allowed monitoring to happen. The report only indicates that monitoring was not happening at the time of their inspection and that the features of the manager’s phone were no different from any other phone. Unfortunately, the accessibility of such features to all phones does not indicate that they were not used improperly.
The city council was apparently satisfied that no eavesdropping had taken place, though, and has closed the case.
The phone vendor’s report can be viewed
“The phone user can select, using a toggle button on the phone labeled ‘MIC’, if the microphone will be active or inactive when they receive an internal call with the phone set to automatically answer.”
From The Californian, 8/28/2014
An inspection by the Maynard Group revealed an aberrant gap on Michael Powers’ phone, but it’s not enough to warrant further pursuit, said Martin Koczanowicz, King City’s attorney.
Powers was accused in a search warrant lodged in May by the Monterey County District Attorney’s office of wiretapping the King City Police Department. Among the alleged victims were interim Chief Dennis Hegwood and Sgt. Alex Tirado.
On Aug. 12, the King City City Council went into closed session during a special meeting to discuss the search warrant after it became widely publicized in the news media. No reportable action was taken in the meeting except a decision to have the city’s phone provider inspect the system.
Koczanowicz acknowledged the seriousness of the search warrant’s claims in a letter Wednesday.
“The phone system has now been investigated by a company with the required expertise,” he wrote. “The matter is considered closed and there are no plans by the City Council to pursue it further.”
…With only two exceptions, Powers’ phone was found to be similar to all other phones on the system.