Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Phone firms 'flooded' by crime checks

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2002 13:18:54 -0500

Friday, 20 December, 2002, 02:09 GMT
Phone firms 'flooded' by crime checks

Danielle's killer was caught partly by mobile records

Mobile phone firms are being overwhelmed by police requests for information about
suspects' calls, the companies have complained.
Almost half a million inquiries are made to the firms every year by police and customs
officers, the BBC has learned.

The cost of the inquiries to both police and the industry has been escalating, and firms
have begun charging a fee for every request.

Information on where or when a mobile phone call was made by a suspect can link them to a
crime - or exonerate them.

The uncle of Essex schoolgirl Danielle Jones was on Thursday convicted of her murder,
partly because of evidence he had sent himself a text message from her phone after she had
vanished.

In April, two 16-year-old brothers were cleared of murdering 10-year-old Damilola Taylor
after a judge ruled they could not have run from where Damilola sustained his fatal
injury, to an area where they made mobile calls shortly afterwards.

Police frustration

Gregory Smith, a consultant forensic engineer, said the "radio footprints" left by
criminals using mobiles were vital to many criminal investigations.

"This is just another branch of the forensic science area ... like pathology, medicinal
and accounting," he said.

"If a person makes a mobile call, potentially while involved in commission of a criminal
act, it is possible to determine from where the radio footprint would have been made."

But police say they are frustrated because the information is not always available.
Records are sometimes held for only six months.

A year ago the government proposed a code of conduct in which firms would keep records for
at least 12 months - to enable it to carry out checks in its fight against terrorism.

But negotiations have not gone well, and there has been no agreement with the mobile phone
companies.

The Home Office said discussions were continuing.

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