Currently police in the Island have no legal powers to force suspects of any crimes to unlock their devices, although Chief Inspector Chris Beechey said specially-trained officers were ‘increasingly powerful’ at breaking security codes.
In the UK, under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, offenders must disclose any passwords to devices secured by officers. Stephen-Alan Nicholson (24) was jailed for 14 months last year after withholding his Facebook password from detectives investigating the death of 13-year-old Lucy McHugh in Southampton. Nicholson was initially arrested on suspicion of murdering the teenager.
There is no set date for when the legislation will be introduced in Jersey but it is part of a raft of changes proposed in the new Cybercrime (Jersey) Law. The maximum sentence for failing to disclose a passcode, according to the draft legislation, would be five years in prison.
Chief Insp Beechey said: ‘Our officers are increasingly able to access all devices even if a passcode is not given.
‘We want victims to know that there is on-Island support and skills to catch offenders but there is also a message of deterrent to be delivered. There are people out there that choose to operate at this level, they need to know that the SOJP has more skills than ever to stop them.’
The detective said most police investigations in the modern day, from assaults to fraud, sexual crimes to theft, involved some sort of hi-tech crime element.
Figures show that between the start of 2016 and the end of 2018 the number of cases dealt with in the States police Hi-Tech Crime Unit has increased by 66 per cent from 453 to 752.
There are six full-time members of staff in the unit and several ‘satellite officers’ who work in different areas but are trained to carry out the same duties. A further 36 officers within the States police are trained in basic mobile phone examination and the local Hi-Tech Crime Unit has close ties with officers in Guernsey.
Chief Insp Beechey added: ‘Laptops, phones and the like are traditional devices [we would analyse] but our officers now have to think about anything that can access the internet. Routers, Cloud storage, Fitbits, Amazon Echo and Alexa are things we have to look at too.
‘It’s a challenge but it provides more opportunities for evidence.’
In America, data from a smart water meter was used as evidence in the murder trial of James Bates in Arkansas. An article published on American news website 5 News Online reported: ‘Court documents show investigators believe James Bates cleaned up the murder scene because of the amount of water he used in a two-hour window. Police said they got that data from the smart water meter at his home, which, according to the city utilities department, takes a measurement every hour of how much water is used.’
Evidence was also seized from an Amazon Echo device and used in the trial. The cases against Mr Bates was later dropped.
‘There are three areas that are now required in the Hi-Tech Crime Unit to deal with all the things we do; investment in people, equipment and software. With that comes training implications, particularly for staff and that cost is significant,’ added Chief Insp Beechey, who said the States police budget ‘has had to be flexible’ in recent years. ‘Hi-tech crime is not an area we can afford to cut back on.’
The total States police budget has been cut by about £1.2 million since 2017 to £22,255,400.
