Police are seeking masses of personal data by default from victims of crime that is not relevant to an investigation, and may not be lawful, a civil liberties group complains.
The scale and depth of the police’s mobile phone searches are incomparable with police powers to carry out physical searches, says Big Brother Watch. In a report, it said: “It would amount to police searching someone’s property and taking copies of all photographs, documents, letters, films, albums, books and files. These would be intrusive searches even for most suspects of crime. But now, police are carrying out these intrusive digital searches against victims of crime.
“Police, pressured by the Crown Prosecution Service [CPS], are demanding victims sign blank cheque “consent” forms allowing access to their digital lives, warning them that the investigation will likely be discontinued if they refuse. The police use mobile phone extraction tools to download the contents of victims’ mobile phones and digital devices.
“Victims who do give blanket consent to these digital interrogations are afforded no protections. All the data taken from their devices, which can even include their social media accounts, can be kept by the police for up to 100 years. Victims are told that if there is evidence of any suspected offences found in that digital information, police will subject them, or a person they have communicated with such as a friend or family member, to a criminal investigation. These digital strip searches are not only cruel, invasive and causing major delays to investigations – they breach victims’ fundamental rights and obstruct justice.”
For the full, 60-page report visit the Big Brother Watch website.
While such ‘digital interrogations’ have been used almost exclusively for complainants of rape and serious sexual offences so far, a national policy set in April means the same approach could be taken to potentially any crime, according to BBW. The campaign group says a ‘creeping norm of using data trawls to treat victims like suspects marks a disturbing, radical change within our criminal justice system’.
Comment
For the National Police Chiefs’ Council, the NPCC Lead for Criminal Justice, Met Police Assistant Commissioner Nick Ephgrave said: “The national digital consent form was introduced to bring consistency to the way forces were obtaining and recording the consent of victims and witnesses in providing their digital device for examination. Police have a duty to pursue all reasonable lines of enquiry in every investigation and to meet the disclosure obligations under the Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act. In this digital age, reasonable lines of enquiry often include the examination of material stored on or accessed by digital devices. This can happen in any investigation but is most common in cases where victims and suspects know each other.
“We believe that the best way of meeting our obligations is asking for consent to search for particular, relevant material. The new form is intended to ensure this is done properly and consistently across the country. It is also important to stress that digital devices are not examined as a matter of course – only when data on a device could form a reasonable line of enquiry.
“We recognise the concerns of some privacy and victims’ groups and have been seeking advice from a wide range of groups to help us improve the process. We are strengthening training and investing in new technology, which will help to address concerns. We will look carefully at Big Brother Watch’s suggestions in their report released today, as well as the Information Commissioner’s investigation findings, which are expected soon.”
The Victims’ Commissioner, while Labour PCC (Police and Crime Commissioner) for Northumbria Dame Vera Baird, spoke of the ‘scandal of intrusive unnecessary scrutiny of phone downloads and personal material such as health notes’, as part of wider poor treatment of rape complainants.
A BBW online petition calls on the police and the CPS to stop forcing sexual assault survivors to hand in their phones in investigations.
