Room For Improvement In Wiretapping

The system for archiving wiretaps could stand a number of changes, a prosecutor told a conference of law students today.

MBL reports that Kolbrún Benediktsdóttir, a prosecutor from the State Prosecutor’s office, told attendees at today’s Orator conference of law students that the current system by which wiretaps are stored and organised could do with an overhaul.

Currently, recordings of wiretaps are kept in an archiving system called Hlerann. This system gives those connected to the investigation easy access to recordings of wiretaps, organised in a manner which makes them easy to find. However, Kolbrún believes the system is not good enough, and has a number of flaws.

First of all, it is difficult to block access to Hlerann from those who should not have access to it. Second, it is hard to keep track of who accessed which wiretap recordings, and when.

To remedy this problem, Kolbrún suggests simply moving the entire system over to LÖKE, the existing police registration system. Apart from the increased security of LÖKE, the system also keeps detailed track of who accesses and uses anything archived there.

As an aside, Kolbrún disspelled the notion that police sit in cars listening to wiretaps in real time. The mundane reality, it turns out, is that the recordings are archived automatically, and are listened to days or even weeks after the fact.