Police self-stamped warrants, used unauthorised magistrates: Ombud

The commonwealth ombud has called out the use of stamps instead of signatures when authorising interception of stored communications, with law enforcement and regulators issued their annual bugging compliance report card overnight.

The shortcuts relate to police obtaining authorisations and revocations for electronically stored material under the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act, which covers the likes of text and other communication app messages, pictures and voicemail.

While live bugging of conversations is still a mainstay of surveillance, increasingly it’s stored communication that yields evidence in investigations.