If your organization has received, or is at risk of receiving, bomb threats or other threatening phone calls, this information can help you record & preserve the calls as evidence for law enforcement (LE) and your attorneys. Jewish Community Centers (JCCs) are presently receiving bomb threat calls and it’s realistic to expect this problem to increase and spread to other organizations as well: anything connected to liberal causes and/or ethnicities or other groups targeted by haters.
First I’ll cover the legalities, then the technology “how-to” issues. (I am not a lawyer, I’m a PBX engineer with 30 years’ experience including relevant LE and security issues.)
If you have a PBX tech or IT person who handles your telephone system or service, you can give them this story, and they’ll know what to do for your organization.
0) Rules of the road:
For this story, cynical comments such as “why bother, the cops won’t do anything” and other comments that have the effect of discouraging action, are NOT welcome and are considered threadjacking and “being a dick” within the scope of DK site rules. Since we can’t flag comments in our own stories, I encourage others to flag any such comments. If you want to spread despair and apathy, go do it on some Republican site, NOT on DK. DK is for activists, not for “apathists.”
1) Check your state for “one-party” or “two-party” notification laws for recording.
“One-party” means that any person on a phone call can consent to recording, and the other parties do not have to be notified. “Two-party” means you have to notify all parties to a conversation that they are being recorded.
See page 3 of the document below (this doc is “Reporter’s Recording Guide” and is highly useful for other purposes as well, such as if you’re engaged in any sort of journalism).
www.rcfp.org/…
Briefly, the two-party states are California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Washington. All other states are one-party. The more-restrictive state’s laws govern: in a call between a one-party state and a two-party state, failure to notify all parties is legally actionable in the two-party state.
2) If you are in a two-party state:
You must notify callers that they are being recorded.
If you have an office telephone system with auto-attendant and voicemail (I’ll abbreviate this as “PBX,” which stands for Private Branch Exchange: many current PBXs have an integrated auto-attendant and voicemail system in the same cabinet), you should have the system set up to answer your incoming calls (see (5) below). Even if you’d rather that your receptionist answer incoming calls “live” and let the PBX’s voicemail system handle calls when s/he is busy or away from desk. These are not normal times and safety comes first.
Your auto-attendant greeting should immediately mention that calls are recorded, for example:
“Welcome to (name of organization). Calls may be monitored or recorded. If you know your party’s extension please dial it now. Otherwise please press 0 or stay on the line for a receptionist. Thank you.” Merely saying “calls may be recorded” may discourage these callers, and cause them to hang up without causing you any further trouble.
Do Not mention a “purpose” for recording, for example, “Calls may be recorded or monitored for training purposes. If you mention a purpose, you cannot legally use the recordings for any other purpose. If you do not mention a purpose, you can use the recordings for any purpose you like. All you need to say is that “calls may be monitored or recorded,” and that’s all.
3) If you are in a one-party state:
You do not need to notify callers. You can have your receptionist answer calls “live” if you prefer, as long as you have a means of recording calls from the moment they are answered.
4) If you do not have a PBX:
This applies if you have one phone line, or a few phone lines, and an answering machine or telco voicemail. You might have a basic analog phone (“2500 type”, see (6) below), or a simple “key system” that consists of phones with buttons & lights for outside lines. But either way there is no option for the system to answer calls with a greeting and let callers dial extension numbers to reach specific people.
If you are in a two-party state, train your receptionist to say the following when answering the phone: “(Name of organization), calls may be recorded, how can I help you?” The important part is to say “calls may be recorded” immediately after announcing the name of the organization, and before saying anything else. Whatever you say after “calls may be recorded” is up to you.
As with PBX greetings, merely saying “calls may be recorded” may cause threat callers to hang up and go away without causing you any trouble.
Practice, practice, practice, so it becomes second nature. If need be, print the greeting in large letters and post it right next to the Receptionist’s phone.
Then see (6) below for information about recording calls.
5) If you do have a PBX:
This applies if you have a phone system that can answer calls with a greeting, and callers can dial extension numbers to reach specific people.
Contact your PBX service company or technician and request they do the following:
- Program the PBX so it answers incoming calls with an auto-attendant greeting, that includes “to reach a Receptionist, press 0 or stay on the line,” and set up the call routing accordingly.
- Record a new main greeting that includes the wording “Calls may be recorded or monitored,” immediately after announcing the name of your organization. Do not vary from that wording.
- Your greeting will end up similar to this: “Welcome to (name of organization). Calls may be recorded or monitored. If you know your party’s extension please dial it now. Otherwise press 0 or stay on the line for a receptionist. Thank you.”
- Note: disable any dial-by-name or staff directory function. That function is nice for normal times, but it gives threat callers more information they can use.
- Your tech may be able to give you the password and feature codes needed to record the main greeting in your own voice. Some PBX companies & techs are reluctant to give out this information because mistakes by clients or end-users can seriously compromise security and let cybercriminals cause major costs and other damage. In any case your tech will need to program the call routing for “press 0 = receptionist” and “no digits entered within X seconds = receptionist.”
- Program all of your voicemail boxes to retain new and saved messages for a minimum of 7 days, preferably 14 days or longer if your system has sufficient storage capacity.
- If the PBX has a “supervisory recording” feature, enable it for the Receptionist and all other phones that may need it. Not all PBXs have this function, and each PBX manufacturer has a different name for it. Typically it’s used for training call center workers. Depending on your PBX, it may be possible to have this feature work automatically and record everything for specific phones. Or it may be that the feature requires that you press a button on your phone to start recording.
- Many PBXs can email recordings as audio files to your chosen email addresses, as soon as each recording is completed. If yours can do that but you aren’t using it yet, it’s worthwhile to pay the extra costs that may be involved for setting it up. This will also enable setting up the recording mailbox so it deletes recordings within 24 hours: that’s good for preventing your voicemail storage from becoming full.
- If your PBX does not have the ability to send messages to email, see section (6) for more.
6) Recording from the telephone:
This applies whether or not you have a PBX or can send recordings & voicemail messages to email.
You’ll need this if you answer calls live, or if you need to get voicemail messages or other saved recordings on a PBX.
All of the items below that are shown on Amazon, can be bought from numerous other online sources, including specialty shops, and also on Ebay. Some of these things may be available from your local electronics shops including Radio Shack. (Amazon is a convenient “catalog” for looking up stuff, even if you don’t buy from Amazon.)
You’ll need an inexpensive recorder coupler and a recorder, and possibly a standard 2500 type phone for the recorder coupler if it doesn’t work from your existing desk phone.
There are two types of recorder couplers:
a) Handset interface couplers: This type of recorder coupler connects between the telephone handset (receiver) and the base of the phone, and plugs into a recorder. It does not work with cordless phones, see section “e” below and get a type 2500 phone. Below are two examples of handset interface couplers. Radio Shack used to sell these but it’s not clear if they still do.
www.amazon.com/…
www.amazon.com/...
With the above couplers, you need to press Record on your recording device whenever you want to record a call. You need to train your staff to practice pressing Record before they answer the phone, every single time. After they finish a call, press Stop. For innocent calls, you can go back and erase them. Practice, practice, practice, so it all becomes second-nature.
b) Line interface couplers: This type of recorder coupler connects to the telephone line itself, and automatically records all conversations on that line. Here’s one example:
www.amazon.com/…
This type of coupler starts the recorder any time the phone line is in use. If you have more than one phone line, you’ll need more than one of these, and a recorder for each one. If a threat comes in on a line that doesn’t have one, it won’t be recorded. You will need a telephone technician to wire jacks for each phone line, at your receptionist’s desk or some other accessible location. And you will need to check the recorders to erase recordings or turn over the cassettes when full.
c) Recorders: simple is good, and cassettes are still the best choice because you can easily hand them over to LE as evidence. Here’s a listing of cassette recorders on Amazon:
www.amazon.com/...
Remember to get a box of blank cassettes. 90-minute cassettes are best, 45 minutes each side. The 120-minute types use a thinner grade of tape that can break or snarl.
d) You will need to test your recording setup to be sure it works. Some telephones’ handsets don't use the standard wiring arrangement and may not get usable audio. To be safe, you can get a “type 2500” desk phone, that will always work on any analog phone line or PBX extension (they even come in red;-). For example:
www.amazon.com/…
3) Your telephone technician can also get “2500” phones for you. In any case, specify “Cortelco 2500, made in USA”, because it’s the current version of the standard American desk phone since 1968 and will always work with a handset interface recorder coupler. Cortelco also has a slightly lower-cost version made in China that should also work. If you have a PBX or VOIP service that has a lower-voltage ringing output, you will need the Cortelco 2500 with “electronic ringer” (sometimes shown as “electric ringer,” which is a typo), which is also made in China but should work.
7) Recording from a saved voicemail message:
If you find a threat call in a voicemail box, or if you have PBX supervisory recording turned on but can’t send the recordings to email: You’ll need to dial into the mailbox and record the call from your phone (per (6) above). You can do this by dialing into your voicemail system directly, or by calling from an outside line and retrieving messages as you might normally do from home at night.
8) Staff training:
Write up a simple and clear document that goes through the procedures for answering calls, recording, and dealing with threat calls. Print this out and post it where calls are answered. Don’t count on people looking it up on a computer: a printed page taped to a desk or wall is faster.
Practice, practice, practice, until it becomes second-nature. Have someone call in from another landline or a mobile device and say “this is a practice test-call for threatening calls.” Your Receptionist should follow all of your procedures to record the call, and then you should end up with a recording either in email or on a cassette.
When you answer a call and it’s a threat call:
If it’s a robo-call or recorded voice, just let it play and don’t hang up. Let it hang up on you.
If it’s a live person, keep calm and let them talk, but try to ask a few questions:
- Where is the bomb located? (Or, where is the shooter located?, etc.)
- How long do we have before it goes off? (Or, how long before they start shooting?, etc.)
- Do you have a statement or manifesto that people can read?
The longer they talk, the easier it will be to get a voiceprint match if they’re caught.
Your local LE agency may have an officer who can give you specific instructions for what to say.
In any case, keep calm, like it’s a perfectly routine office call. Don’t give threat callers the satisfaction of getting you upset.
Write down the caller ID name and number. If you’re using a 2500 type phone, you’ll need a separate caller ID display unit: www.amazon.com/…
Do not get a “talking caller ID” unit, it will be a distraction and the caller may hear the announcement and hang up.
Immediately after they hang up, be sure you have the recording, and then call 9-1-1 for the police, and follow the emergency dispatcher’s instructions.
9) After the event:
After you file a police report, you can provide a copy to your telco, and have your telco provide a “call trap” feature on your outside lines. This will enable you to dial a feature code and capture a “trace” of the origin of the phone call. You, and LE, can’t trace a call until you have this feature turned on, and you need to have a police report and request the feature from the telco. (No, you can’t call NSA and ask them after the fact: they are not in the LE business except for major terrorism and espionage cases.)
It’s also useful to speak with your lawyer after the event.
LE and attorneys will typically advise that you should _not_ post these recordings in public places such as on your blog or website, because a) that will impede the investigation and prosecution, and b) it may encourage copycats, and c) copycats may use your recording for their own threat calls. Follow the advice of LE and your lawyer about this: don’t screw up a case or give haters something they can use.
10) Misc. and other:
Threat callers may use various methods in an attempt to thwart call tracing. Don’t let that discourage you: sooner or later they will screw up and do something that identifies themselves. You might be the lucky person for whom they screw up. I’m not going to discuss the means that badguys use to attempt to thwart detection and capture. The bottom line is, treat every such call as if you are going to be the person who helps catch the perp.
I may or may not be able to stick around to reply to questions & comments quickly. In that case I’ll do it overnight. Also there may be updates (I wrote this while at work so I may have missed something while trying to get it done quickly).
Now go out & get ‘em, tigers!