People are projecting modern surveillance backwards. In 1990, broad electronic surveillance of Americans was far more controversial, more legally constrained, and much less technologically pervasive than it became after the post-9/11 expansion of surveillance powers. The USA PATRIOT Act didn’t invent wiretapping, but it dramatically expanded the government’s ability to conduct surveillance and shifted public and legal attitudes toward it. Treating 1990 NYC like authorities could casually tap mobile phones on demand is anachronistic. If you’re trying to roleplay the period authentically, investigations should rely far more on informants, physical surveillance, warrants, undercover work, and old-fashioned detective work. We should not project modern expectations of ubiquitous electronic monitoring into 1990s RP.