European police chiefs presented a joint statement defending access to and preservation of metadata to carry out their work and asked the European Union to legislate on the matter, following the “Metadata Law Enforcement” conference held in Lisbon last week of 31 criminal police agencies from 26 countries.
“We are particularly concerned about the impact, nationally and internationally, of the lack of an EU data retention regime in relation to traffic and location data, which affects not only the fulfillment of our missions, but the society as a whole, and we question the impact on citizens’ rights, freedoms and guarantees and hence on the democratic rule of law, as some types of crimes can only be prevented and investigated if the retention of data without content is allowed,” said the police chiefs in a statement to which the DN had access.
“We call for comprehensive work not only on data retention, but also on data access and exploitation, to establish a new legal framework that strengthens trust between law enforcement, the private sector and restores citizens”, the police officers continue, who speak of a “growing imbalance between the resources and capabilities misused by criminal organizations” and the authorities’ ability to “provide an operative and efficient response”.
The police chiefs recall that they “take responsibility on a daily basis to protect citizens’ rights, freedoms and guarantees” while at the same time being “fully monitored by society” for “efficiency and quality of performance”.
“We signal these difficulties, based on our specialized knowledge, our collective reflection and experience in the area, to the European and national institutions, and make our contribution to enable constructive solutions at legislative, executive and judicial levels,” they add. please.
Metadata allows for a kind of cataloging of certain information, which can be useful in the prevention, investigation or suppression of serious crimes, with the latest declaration of unconstitutionality of the Metadata Act questioning the legality of various processes and obstacles to accessing and using it in jeopardizes information in future investigations.
Source: DN
