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A Democratic Licence to Operate
‘volume crime’ in terms of new forms of fraud and theft. There are three issues specific
to policing capabilities, all of which continue to pose a serious challenge:
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Diversification and technical change in electronic communications
Communications are often held in multiple or foreign jurisdictions, requiring
multilateral co-operation between states
Criminals are early adaptors of digital technology and so are quick to exploit any
blind spots, such as using Tor and virtual private networks.
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The public expect the police and NCA to respond to all forms of criminality. To that
end they need appropriate capabilities nationally, regionally and locally. However,
‘traditional’ forms of crime are no longer geographically focused; criminality has become
digitally enabled and law enforcement cannot respond on a purely localised basis – a
fundamental change to the British approach to policing. Online victims and offenders
are often in different geographical locations, so it is often difficult to establish who has
responsibility to look after the victim and ownership to investigate the suspect.
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The number of criminal suspects may not necessarily have increased, but their
communication through a variety of channels and platforms has grown. Whereby
communications historically went through a single service provider, the situation today
is much more complex and law-enforcement agencies must engage with, and request
data from, an ever-growing number of CSPs, hardware and software providers, as well
as applications available on smartphones and tablets.
Police Use of Communications Data
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Communications data is used across a range of Metropolitan Police investigations:
murder, rape, missing persons, domestic abuse and harassment, child sexual exploitation,
serious acquisitive crime and fraud. For example:
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Tracing rape and murder suspects is an extremely high priority, especially due to
the short life span of forensic evidence. A murder investigation may involve as
many as 500 applications for communications data
Around 50,000 people in London go missing each year. The Metropolitan Police
pursues around five new investigations involving high-risk individuals each day.
In the majority of cases, communications data is critical and there are many
cases where an early arrest aided by communications data has prevented further
harm. In extreme cases, for example where there is thought to be high likelihood
of threat to life of a minor, hundreds of communications data requests can be
made within a twenty-four-hour period
DNA evidence is not always sufficient in many criminal investigations.
Communications data can also be used to place suspects at the scene of a crime,
as well as to prove that an individual was part of a conspiracy to commit an offence