(9/12/2025- Boston) On Tuesday, the Joint Committee on the Judiciary held a public hearing to review several pieces of legislation including Senator John C. Velis’s refiled legislation to modernize the Commonwealth’s antiquated wire tape statue. Over the last several years Senator Velis has been leading the charge to update the law to enable law enforcement to better investigate and solve serious crimes in Massachusetts.
Despite the evolution of technology and crime over the past 50 years, Massachusetts’ wiretap law has not been updated since 1968. Due to the nature of how crimes differed in 1968, the law limits prosecutor’s ability to seek a wiretap warrant unless it is specifically related to organized crime, a factor that prohibits law enforcement for seeking a wiretap in many cases. Velis’s legislation seeks to expand the list of designated offenses that law enforcement can request a wiretap for to include the unlawful use or possession of a firearm and murder in the first degree. In 2017, then Attorney General Healey shared support for updating wiretap statue alongside local law enforcement and many of the states district attorneys.
“At the end of the day, this is all about keeping our communities safe. It is absolutely irrefutable that not only has the nature of crime changed drastically since this statute was created, but also that technology has evolved in countless ways over the past 57 years,” Senator Velis shared. “Not only has law enforcement advocated for the Legislature to revisit this statute, but our very own Justices have also shared concerns of how this antiqued law severely impedes investigations for some of the most heinous crimes.”
Senator Velis shared that he is hopeful that the legislation will receive a favorable report by the Committee.
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