As one can imagine, conversations with reporters about wiretaps are not in vogue these days at City Hall. Inquiries about whether staffers and City Council members are concerned about bugs, and whether they’ve called in experts to sweep for bugs, are answered with questions, like “Are you calling everybody?” “Why did you call the chief of staff?” and “Are other people concerned about this?

For the record, we are interested. And, for the record, no offices directly addressed the issue of having their offices e-cleaned, or w-cleaned, or whatever. Only a Donna Frye press aide, and Councilman Michael Zucchet, one near the eye of this federal investigation storm, would even talk.

Politicians, though, aren’t the only ones with an eye out for bugs. Family disputes that end up in court invite the unsavory specter of lover and parental spying. In a more commercial setting, unscrupulous competitors could use wireless transmitting devices to listen where they’re not supposed to and cell phones to snap pictures in places that are none of their business.

Brenda Watton is the owner of Private Spy Investigative Supply in Normal Heights (www.callpsis.com). She works for law firms, insurance agencies and other private parties, but has stopped dealing with the general public because she got tired of hearing from women who “want to tape their boyfriend’s conversations” or the estranged husband who decides he needs a GPS tracker in his wife’s car. Sometimes these nosy folks think Private Spy can do something legally that the estranged husband can’t, like violate a restraining order.

Watton says she thinks concern about little bugs being dropped behind draperies and such in business settings is overblown, although it is possible to buy discreet wireless transmitters that will broadcast an audio signal up to 700 feet. “There’s a world of devices you can buy online,” she says,” but much of it is novelty gear. The $29.95 stuff has no credibility.”

Similarly, those video cameras advertised for $19.95 online may take pictures, but to do any serious surveillance, a recorder is required, and they run about $2,000.

At www.spy-gear.co.uk, shoppers can purchase a transmitter the size of a cigarette case for about 300 pounds ($498), and less conspicuous items such as transmitting calculators or pens. The site also sells bug detectors that scan for frequencies being broadcast from the facility in question for as little as 189 pounds ($314).

For $99, spycompany.com will ship you its “mini telephone line tap detector,” which it claims will detect telephone tapping and taping. “Simply plug the cord from the Phone Sentry into your telephone wall jack, then plug your telephone cord into the Phone Sentry. If the green indicator light is lit, your line is safe. If the green light goes out while you are on the line, this is a clear indication of an eavesdropping attempt, or another phone on your line is off the hook.”

Watton says businesses’ biggest concern may be with the latest cell phones, the ones with the cameras on board. “We’ve heard some electronics firms don’t let anyone on the premises with a cell phone, because they’re afraid of the possible theft of trade secrets.”

Watton spends much of her time making sure contests are on the up and up. “We monitor contests to detect fraud, events, drawings, giveaways to make sure the general public wins.”

PSIS got involved in the infamous McDonald’s Monopoly pieces scandal in 2001. Somehow, one of Mickey D’s marketing agents got mixed up in trafficking game pieces, and Watton says, “allowed the winning pieces to go to people who shouldn’t have gotten them.” The solution was for Watton to show up at a store not of her choosing and hand over the loot to “the next person that walks in the door.”

For the record, Michael Simonsen, press aide for Frye, says he’s not worried about his office’s phones being tapped, although “I assume it’s a possibility.” After pondering the idea for a moment, he concludes, “I don’t think they are.”

Michael Zucchet confined his remarks about bugs to a cloak-and-dagger moment in his quest for election last fall. “During my campaign, my opponent recorded me and tried to leak it to The Union-Tribune and then tried to use it against me,” he says. “It felt pretty shocking. The move eventually backfired, because the public didn’t take too kindly to using bugs as a way to score political points.”

Zucchet says he has seen James Bond-like surveillance in spy movies, but “it’s not something you expect to have happen to you.”

In the campaign case, he recalls meeting with a newspaper reporter who “slid across the table a transcript of what was supposed to be me and said ‘Care to comment?’ It’s a horrendous feeling.”

— Rich Acello