Originally Posted by
BigLar
I have my doubts about this.
It would seem, if this were the case, that the cops would tend to encourage non-LEOs to gather information for them that they couldn't legally obtain, thus perform an end run around the law. I think this very activity has been chastised from the bench more than once.
The police hiring or otherwise encouraging outside contractors to do run-arounds around domestic legal restrictions indeed doesn't have the same kind of utility (or ease of utility) as intelligence agencies doing much the same to do run-arounds around domestic legal restrictions. Of course if the police or intelligence agencies can create/exploit an international nexus or otherwise get creative, legally or otherwise, then there are ways to recreate the investigative trail and net the same result as if using proverbial fruits from the poisoned tree when going after targets in domestic court. It depends on how sophisticated the set up is.