Inspector critical of data use

THE Commonwealth Ombudsman has taken aim at Tasmania Police for mishandling of stored communications data, saying the agency had also failed to act on recommendations it made 12 months earlier.

In its report on monitoring agency access to stored communications and telecommunications data, the Ombudsman inspected Tasmania Police over five days in October 2018.

The Ombudsman observed the agency “did not have a well-developed compliance culture”, saying a large number of issues were identified across several of its processes.

Two recommendations were made on the agency’s overall approach to compliance, including that Tasmania Police train staff to have a thorough understanding of the legislation, and to develop a program to ensure compliance with the relevant Act.

A further two recommendations, 10 suggestions and one better practice suggestion were made specifically about access to stored communications. The Ombudsman said during its 2017-18 inspection, it identified Tasmania Police had not taken sufficient action to address findings from the previous year’s inspection.

At the earlier inspection, two instances were found where a telecommunications carrier provided police with stored communications that did not comply with warrant conditions. Twelve months later, the Ombudsman found Tasmania Police had not taken any action to manage the information it received from the carrier.

Further issues were identified about the agency’s destruction process and record keeping, including examples where information flagged to be destroyed had not yet happened.

The Ombudsman’s final report was sent to Tasmania Police in July last year. Detective Inspector Craig Joel said Tasmania Police was working on the recommendations.

DETECTIVES and uniformed police have thanked the public for helping them track down and swarm a “violent family offender” in bushland on Thursday.

Launceston CIB Detective Inspector Craig Fox said assistance from the public led to an extensive search where the offender was found at 11am behind Mayfield in Mowbray.

“Police arrested a 23-yearold man from the Launceston area who we’ve been seeking for about a week,” Detective Inspector Fox said. “He was wanted in relation to a serious domestic assault that occurred several days ago.”

He said police had taken the man into custody and charges were expected to be laid.