The NSW Labor government is set to introduce a bill to give NSW Police the power to require people to provide access to their digital devices during more routine arrests.

The October 2022-enacted digital evidence access order (DEAO) regime allows police to obtain such an order when executing search and crime scene warrants. If the subject of the order refuses, it becomes a criminal offence, carrying up to five years in prison. This measure overrides the common law right against self-incrimination.

However, once police have obtained access to a suspect’s phone, they can use software, developed by Israeli digital forensics company Cellebrite, that can download a person’s content, including all deleted messages and images.

NSW Greens MLC Sue Higginson, the party’s justice spokesperson, told parliament in early June that this capability allows police to access any message the subject has ever sent, as well as “any photo they have ever taken, their location at any moment, everything they have ever searched and biometric data about who they are”.

For several years, NSW police has been able to use this invasive technology during policing operations serious enough to require a warrant. Now, Labor wants to provide DEAO use to cops on the beat.

The Chris Minns government is modernising organised crime laws to bring them........

© Green Left Weekly