Arrest Reports and Laws

Definitions applicable to obtaining contents of communications.


As used in ORS 41.910, 133.723, 133.724, 165.540 and 165.545:
(1) Conversation means the transmission between two or more persons of an oral communication which is not a telecommunication or a radio communication.
(2) Person has the meaning given that term in ORS 174.100 and includes:
(a) Public officials and law enforcement officers of:
(A) The state and of a county, municipal corporation or any other political subdivision of the state; and
(B) A police department established by a university under ORS 352.121 or 353.125; and
(b) Authorized tribal police officers as defined in ORS 181A.680.
(3) Radio communication means the transmission by radio or other wireless methods of writing, signs, signals, pictures and sounds of all kinds, including all instrumentalities, facilities, equipment and services (including, among other things, the receipt, forwarding and delivering of communications) incidental to such transmission.
(4) Telecommunication means the transmission of writing, signs, signals, pictures and sounds of all kinds by aid of wire, cable or other similar connection between the points of origin and reception of such transmission, including all instrumentalities, facilities, equipment and services (including, among other things, the receipt, forwarding and delivering of communications) incidental to such transmission. [1955 c.675 §1; 1959 c.681 §1; 1983 c.740 §34; 2011 c.644 §§25,67,74; 2013 c.180 §§27,28; 2015 c.174 §13]