Renewal of the USA Patriot Act Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Renewal of the USA Patriot Act - Essay Example The USA Patriot Act provided law enforcement and intelligence agencies with basic tools needed to fight and win the war against terrorism. It provided new authority to the Justice Department and the FBI to monitor alleged terrorists or their associates, and provided legal sanction for increased information-sharing between criminal investigators and intelligence agencies. It has expanded the government’s surveillance and prosecutorial powers against suspected terrorists, their associates and financiers. The act allows the government to obtain warrants to monitor and search suspects without meeting previous standards of probable cause, in any criminal investigation, whether related to terrorism or not. As a result, some searches that would have been unreasonable before September 11 are now legal and some significant information will be shared by various law enforcement agencies that otherwise would not have been shared.