Content and location information

Content. We are compelled to provide contents of communications to law enforcement relatively infrequently. Under the law, law enforcement may seek communications or other content that a customer may store through our services, such as text messages or email. Verizon only releases such stored content to law enforcement with a probable cause warrant; we do not produce stored content in response to a general order or subpoena. During the second half of 2019, we received 11,424 warrants for stored content.

Location information. In the second half of 2019, we received 13,657 warrants based on probable cause for location data. In addition, we received 1,539 warrants or court orders for “cell tower dumps” in the second half of 2019. In order to try to identify a suspect of a crime, the government may apply to a court for a warrant or order compelling us to provide a “dump” of the phone numbers of all devices that connected to a specific cell tower or site during a given period of time.

Emergency requests

Law enforcement requests information from Verizon that is needed to help resolve serious emergencies. We are authorized by federal law to provide the requested information in such emergencies and we have an established process to respond to emergency requests, in accordance with the law. To request data during these emergencies, a law enforcement officer must certify in writing that there was an emergency involving the danger of death or serious physical injury to a person that required disclosure without delay. These emergency requests are made in response to active violent crimes, bomb threats, hostage situations, kidnappings and fugitive scenarios, often presenting life-threatening situations. In addition, many emergency requests are in search and rescue settings or when law enforcement is trying to locate a missing child or elderly person.

We also receive emergency requests for information from Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) regarding particular 9-1-1 calls from the public. Calls for emergency services, such as police, fire or ambulance, are answered in call centers, or PSAPs, throughout the country. PSAPs receive tens of millions of calls from 9-1-1 callers each year, and certain information about the calls (name and address for wireline callers; phone numbers and available location information for wireless callers) is typically made available to the PSAP when a 9-1-1 call is made. Yet a small percentage of the time PSAP officials need to contact the telecom provider to get information that was not automatically communicated by virtue of the 9-1-1 call or by the 9-1-1 caller.

In the second half of 2019, we received 33,518 emergency requests for information from law enforcement in emergency matters involving the danger of death or serious physical injury. We also received 18,333 emergency requests from PSAPs related to particular 9-1-1 calls from the public for emergency services during that same period.

National security demands

The table below sets forth the number of national security demands we received in the applicable period. Under section 603 of the USA Freedom Act we are now able to report the number of demands in bands of 500.



Jul. 1, 2016–

Dec. 31, 2016 Jan 1, 2017–

Jun. 30, 2017 July 1, 2017–Dec. 31, 2017 Jan 1, 2018–

Jun. 30, 2018 Jul. 1, 2018–

Dec. 31, 2018 Jan 1, 2019–

Jun. 30, 2019 June 30, 2019 –Dec. 31 2019 National

Security Letters 6-499 1-499 501-999 2-499 0-499 0-499 0-499 Number of

customer selectors 1000-1499 1500-1999 1500-1999 2000-2499 2000-2499 1500-1999 3500-3999 FISA Orders

(Content) 0-499 0-499 0-499 0-499 0-499 0-499 * Number of

customer selectors 2000-2499 1500-1999 2000-2499 2000-2499 1500-1999 1000-1499 * FISA Orders

(Non-Content) 0-499 0-499 0-499 0-499 0-499 0-499 * Number of

customer selectors 0-499 0-499 0-499 0-499 0-499 0-499 *

* The government has imposed a six month delay for reporting this data.