THE LAW: Tapping and Bugging

Two months ago Manhattan police raided an East Side apartment and found the elaborate nerve center of a private wiretap syndicate. The tappers, hooked into the telephone company's underground cables, could eavesdrop on any conversation over six Manhattan exchanges. Among the telephones known to have been monitored were those of the E. R. Squibb & Sons pharmaceutic firm, the Knoedler art gallery and ex-Ecdysiast Ann Corio.

Following the raid, police arrested an electrician and two telephone-company technicians. They were not the top men of the tap business, but from them the trail led to a well-known private eye. Last week John G. ("Steve") Broady, 51, was indicted on 14 counts of wiretapping and related offenses.

Other news about eavesdropping: ¶ California, along with all the other states but four (Illinois, Texas, North Carolina, Maryland), has allowed judges to admit evidence obtained by illegal methods. Last fortnight the California Supreme Court reversed that. It ruled that, since the rights of a bookie were infringed when police broke into his home to plant "bugs" (microphones), the bug evidence should not be used against him.

¶ U.S. law prohibits use of wiretap evidence in federal courts, and Attorney General Herbert Brownell has asked Congress for wiretap authority. Last week a House Judiciary subcommittee considering the matter got a demonstration of wiretap equipment from an expert. Among the expert's eavesdropping gadgets: a combination bug and tap that records room conversations when the telephone receiver is down and telephone conversations when it is up. Said the expert: "If you want to speak in privacy, go to a phone directly behind a neon sign. The sign operates like a transformer, and all they'll get will be a roar on their recorder."