Police pay Telcos to help solve crimes

Police in Australia paid mobile phone companies more than $6 million in the past year for information to help solve crimes.

With more than 24 million active mobile phones across the country, police increasingly rely on the evidence of call charge records and text messages to place a suspect at a crime scene or uncover their role in a criminal plot.

Such information is provided on request by mobile phone carriers — but under the Telecommunications Act, those companies can claim the cost of the research back and charge police.

No other institution that systematically charges police for time to assist in police investigations.

Police can access mobile phone records more easily than they can intercept live telephone conversations, because stored electronic communications enjoy weaker privacy claims under the law.

Payments to mobile phone companies 2009-2010
Totals include costs of searching for stored internet records among those mobile phone companies that have internet arms.

Police agency	NSW Police	Victoria Police	Australian Federal Police	Queensland Police	South Australia Police	Office of Police Integrity	Police Integrity Commission
Totals ($)	2.49m	1.33m	966,263	930,816	203,057	170,904	59,108

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