As used in Sections 177.1 through 177.5 of this title and Section 3 of this act:

1. "Court of competent jurisdiction" means a court of general criminal jurisdiction of this state, including the judges of the district court, associate district judges and special district judges, or any justice of the Supreme Court or judge of the Court of Criminal Appeals or Court of Civil Appeals;

2. "Electronic communication" means any transfer of signs, signals, writing, images, sounds, data or intelligence of any nature transmitted in whole or in part by a wire, radio, electro-magnetic, photo-electronic or photo-optical system, but does not include:

a.any wire or oral communication,

b.any communication made through a tone-only paging device, or

c.any communication from a tracking device;

3. "Pen register" means a device which records or decodes electronic or other impulses which identify the numbers dialed or otherwise transmitted on the telephone line to which such device is attached, but such term does not include any device used by a provider or customer of a wire or electronic communication service for billing, or recording as an incident to billing, for communications services provided by such provider or any device used by a provider or customer of a wire communication service for cost accounting or other like purposes in the ordinary course of its business;

4. “Tracking device” means an electronic or mechanical device which permits the tracking of the movement of a person or object;

5. "Trap and trace device" means a device which captures the incoming electronic or other impulses which identify the originating number of an instrument or device from which a wire or electronic communication was transmitted, but does not include devices used by subscribers to identify the originating numbers of calls received by such subscribers; and

6. "Wire communication" means any aural transfer made in whole or in part through the use of facilities for the transmission of communications by the aid of wire, cable or other like connection between the point of origin and the point of reception, including the use of such connection in a switching station furnished or operated by any person engaged in providing or operating such facilities for the transmission of intrastate, interstate or foreign communications or communications affecting intrastate, interstate or foreign commerce.

Added by Laws 1988, c. 264, § 1, emerg. eff. June 29, 1988. Amended by Laws 1991, c. 64, § 1, emerg. eff. April 11, 1991; Laws 2002, c. 224, § 2, emerg. eff. May 8, 2002; Laws 2007, c. 339, § 2, eff. July 1, 2007.