CHAPTER 9: LAW ENFORCEMENT
9.25.
Though the use of communications data is particularly prominent in online crime such
as fraud and child sexual exploitation, I have been shown examples of it also in
relation to crimes in action (e.g. kidnap for ransom, blackmail), trafficking (whether of
people, drugs or weapons), crimes of violence (when communications data can
corroborate new information, often some time after the event), harassment and
malicious communications. As the National Policing Lead for communications data
put it to me: “Cybercrime is not solely the responsibility of specialist units, but is a
growing general policing challenge.”15
9.26.
Communications data may also be needed in order to meet public expectations that
the police will be able to solve even relatively low-level crimes. Thus, where someone
has their mountain bike stolen and sees it advertised for sale on an online marketplace
such as Gumtree, investigators may need to apply, as a minimum, for subscriber
information to pursue the case.
9.27.
Where ordinary policing is concerned, and still more so in the case of many minor
users, it is generally accepted that much remains to be done in ensuring that existing
capabilities are used to the full. Gaps in the existing law, and the authorisation
procedures required in particular of local authorities, are also said to stand in the way
of a more effective response to the threat. It was noted that although the IOCC
expressed the tentative view in 2014 that more than 500,000 authorisations and
notices “has the feel of being too many”,16 his subsequent rigorous inquiry into
whether there was significant institutional overuse of the powers concluded that there
was not.17
9.28.
Of central importance, I was told, was the ability to use communications data (subject
to necessity and proportionality) for:
15
16
17
(a)
linking an individual to an account or action (e.g. visiting a website, sending an
email) through IP resolution;
(b)
establishing a person’s whereabouts, traditionally via cell site or GPRS data;
(c)
establishing how suspects or victims are communicating (i.e, via which
applications or services);
(d)
observing online criminality (e.g. which websites are being visited for the
purposes of terrorism, child sexual exploitation or purchases of firearms or
illegal drugs); and
(e)
exploiting data (e.g. to identify where, when and with whom or what someone
was communicating, how malware or a denial of service attack was delivered,
and to corroborate other evidence).
Submission of Richard Berry, National Policing Lead for Communications Data, to the Review, 29
September 2014.
IOCC Report, (April 2014), para 4.28.
IOCC Report, (March 2015), para 7.94. He did however find some examples of the powers being
used improperly or unnecessarily.
171