My posts, from the beginning, show my preference for Federal lead in this case. The Feds have more resources and more sophisticated resources at their disposal. These police had plenty of notice about this phone call... you can't tell me w/ proper planning and appropriate hardware and technology this "unclear" audio problem wouldn't be one.
I am not Per Se critical of the local police but they are not our (Americas) best line of defense in this case. This sniper is a national problem and the most sophisticated minds and tools should be made available to handle it.
No, of course not. You only said, "Keystone cops bungle audio from sniper call"
You've shown utter contempt for the police in this specific case. And I'd wager, you feel this way towards police in general.
The facts are simple. If the FBI thought the local police weren't handling this correctly, they would have taken over long ago.
Aparently the real problem was that the FBIies didn't open the message until some "deadline" contained within it had already passed. This from ABC news:
The person demanded money in the note and threatened new attacks if the money was not paid after a certain deadline, sources said. However, by the time FBI evidence technicians opened the note, the deadline had passed, prompting Moose reach out to the suspected sniper through the media.
Using that phone number, and cross-checking it against calls that had already come into a tip line, authorities realized that other calls to the tip line had come in from telephones in the same geographic area as the phone number in the note.
As a result, police and other authorities were staking out a number of pay phones in the area involved this morning, waiting for someone to make a call. Sources told ABCNEWS that someone claiming to be the sniper called authorities from Richmond, Va.
The call, which lasted less than a minute, was traced to the Richmond gas station where the two illegal aliens were detained. While the men were questioned, SWAT teams searched nearby homes where they believed they had been staying.
I expect that both federal and state investigators follow the same procedures - get a court order for a wiretap/pen register/trap-and-trace on the phone number, deliver the order to the telephone company for installation at the central office and intercept the phone call using telco equipment.
Since it is the responsibility of the telephone company to intercept the call for federal and state law enforcement agencies, using their equipment, please explain how "unclear audio" would have been avoided if the investigation was under federal jurisdiction.