Phone tapping urged to target crime bosses

GARDAÍ have asked the Government for greater powers to conduct electronic surveillance of major drug dealers and other serious criminals as part of a crackdown on organised crime.

In a written submission, the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) has also called for an end to the system whereby people can buy prepaid mobile phones without registering their names or addresses. Pay-as-you-go phones are popular among organised criminals, particularly drug dealers, as they cannot be traced to their owners.

The AGSI has asked Justice Minister Michael McDowell to change the law to allow recordings from electronic surveillance - including landlines, mobile phones, faxes and emails - to be used in court as evidence.

It says the new powers would be used to target those suspected of major criminal activity, particularly large-scale drug-dealing, and not the general public or minor criminals.

“We have made a submission about electronic surveillance of persons strongly suspected of major drug-dealing to the mid-term review of the National Drugs Strategy,” said a spokesman for AGSI.

“Electronic surveillance would hopefully help to identify people and to crystallise suspicions about people, that they were in fact dealing in drugs and using their mobile phones and landlines for such dealing.”

The spokesman said they have asked for changes to legislation to allow tapes of electronic surveillance to be used in court as evidence.

“We would hope the minister would have a long hard look at the possibility of introducing the results of electronic surveillance as evidence in court.”

Currently, gardaí can give details in court of phone numbers dialled by suspects, duration of calls, but cannot disclose the content of such conversations.

Garda officers have complained the process of seeking authorisation to tap lines is slow, bureaucratic and restrictive. Currently under the law, gardaí can only get a phone tap on a specific phone line, rather than all phone lines connected with a suspected criminal. Also under the law, every time a suspect changes his phone, the gardaí have to go through the procedure of seeking a fresh warrant to tap the new phone.

The AGSI spokesman said the association would accept stringent safeguards to control the use of electronic surveillance.

“As long as the safeguards were deemed satisfactory by society, the police force would live with them, whatever way that was organised, whether through the judicial system or through government via the minister or through the commissioner.”

Currently, the Minister for Justice issues authorisation for interception of communications.

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) said it didn’t have a problem with wire-taps as long as human rights standards were met and an independent body monitored the authorisation process.

ICCL director Aisling Reidy said there would be concerns about tapping all phone lines associated with a named individual if other people also used those phones.

She said there would also need to be safeguards in using surveillance recordings in court as evidence so that the person accused had the opportunity to explain what he allegedly said and the surveillance was not used to entrap the person.