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Workshop focus on social implications of covert policing
The “social implications of covert policing” was the theme for the latest workshop on the Social Implications of National Security hosted at the Australian National University.
The fourth workshop was sponsored jointly by the Research Network for a Secure Australia (RNSA) and the Centre for Excellence in Policing and Security (CEPS).
Conference chairs were Professor Simon Bronitt, the Director of the National Europe Centre at the ANU College of Law; Associate Professor Clive Harfield of the Faculty of Law at the University of Wollongong; and Dr Katina Michael of the Faculty of Informatics at the University of Wollongong. The workshop also included papers by Dr Mark Rix (Graduate School of Business, UOW); Dr M.G.Michael (Honorary Senior Fellow in UOW’s School of Information Systems and Technology) and Informatics PhD students Mr Anas Aloudat and Ms Roba Abbas.
The workshop addressed the application of covert surveillance techniques in policing and their social implications.
Dr Michael said that recent advances in information and communication technologies (ICT) have enabled sophisticated surveillance of people, their property and spaces -- both public and private.
“In most cases and in most jurisdictions, police traditionally require judicial warrants or some form of independent authorisation to track and monitor subjects and objects by use of surveillance devices.
“The advent of new technologies and the pace of technological innovation invariably outstrips the capacity of the law to regulate this field. In many jurisdictions the laws governing covert policing are patchy and in some places completely unregulated,” she said.
Dr Michael said that in the new climate of national security, human rights’ considerations can be sidelined, with law enforcement agencies gaining wide access to personal details such as mobile phone records and Internet Service Provider (ISP) records.
“To preserve public confidence in the system, there is a need to maintain high levels of compliance with domestic legal requirements and international human rights standards.
“Infiltration of organised cross border criminal networks also requires more sophisticated evidence-gathering techniques. These techniques include as proactive operations using ‘reverse stings’ or controlled deliveries, as well as covert interviewing by undercover police and informers.
“These new techniques are not always subject to legal regulation, raising ethical and legal questions. In an era of increased international police co-operation across borders, there is a pressing need to explore how these new law enforcement technologies and techniques may be more effectively co-ordinated and managed, while at the same time maintaining public confidence in law enforcement,” Dr Michael said.