agencies emerged well from this aspect of the inspection although it is important
that they have the right number of well trained staff in this business area. It was
disappointing to find that almost half of the police forces inspected had taken little
or no advantage of certain streamlining procedures which were introduced when
the Code of Practice was approved by Parliament in October 2007. The changes
were introduced to eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy and to make sure valuable
police time is not wasted. When necessary these matters are drawn to the attention
of the Chief Constables in a covering letter which is issued with each inspection
report. The responses have all been positive and system changes have generally
now been implemented to increase efficiency and effectiveness.
3.20 My Inspectorate receives good cooperation from the CSPs who have a
requirement to comply with any lawful requests for communications data which
are received from the public authorities. Once again the CSPs were asked to provide
my Inspectors with details of the communications data they had disclosed to the
public authorities during a specified period. These disclosures were randomly
checked against the records kept by the public authorities in order to verify that
documentation was available to support the acquisition of the data. I am pleased
to say that in all cases my Inspectors were satisfied the correct process had been
applied and the data had been obtained with the approval of a designated person.
I regard this as a very important check upon the integrity of the process and it
is most reassuring that so far it has not exposed any instances of abuse or the
unlawful acquisition of communications data.
3.21 As in the previous year a great deal of emphasis has been placed upon
the use which police forces and law enforcement agencies are making of the
communications data which they have obtained from CSPs. They have been
required to demonstrate on a case by case basis that it was necessary and
proportionate to obtain the data and that it has been used for a correct statutory
purpose. My Inspectors are able to assess this in two different ways and when
necessary they have challenged the justifications for acquiring a specific set
of data.
3.22 First, they have carried out a random examination of applications from
various sectors of the business in order to judge the overall standard of the public
authority. The accredited officers in the Single Point of Contact have a responsibility
under the Code of Practice to make sure the public authority acts in a lawful and
informed manner and therefore they should return any applications which do not
meet the required standard. All of the police forces and law enforcement agencies
which were inspected during the reporting year achieved a satisfactory standard
and indeed 80% of them were consistently producing good quality applications.
3.23 Secondly, in each police force or law enforcement agency the Inspectors
will look in detail at two or three operations, normally where communications
data has been used to investigate major incidents or serious crime. They will
examine a number of the applications and conduct informal interviews with
senior investigating officers, applicants and analysts. If necessary they will, and
often do, challenge the justifications for acquiring the data. The results of this part
of the inspection have been very revealing and generally it is evident that good
use has been made of the communications data as a powerful investigative tool,
primarily to prevent and detect crime and disorder. It is also very apparent that
communications data plays a crucial role in the successful outcome of prosecutions
and often it is the primary reason why offenders plead guilty.
3.24 I would like to give a few examples of how communications data is used by
police forces and law enforcement agencies to investigate criminal offences. It
may provide a better understanding of its importance to a criminal investigation
and the following examples are based on extracts from the Inspector’s reports. For
obvious reasons I do not intend to reveal the strategies for using communications
data as that may inhibit the conduct of future investigations.
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