Netherlands: tapping mobile phones (1)
01 January 1994
In two recent drug-related trials the police admitted that they monitored thousands of telephone conversations made on mobile car phones and pocketphones over an extended period in an attempt to filter conversations made by a number of suspects through voice analysis. The cooperation of the telephone company was not necessary as the operation was carried out by using radio scanners. Although experts called upon by the defence have claimed this method to be illegal under European Court jurisprudence, the investigating magistrates gave permission to monitor conversations "insofar as voice recognition shows that suspects take part in them". The police claim that they had to record all the radio traffic since the suspects regularly switched numbers.