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Attorney Outlines Police Powers in British Library InvestigationsPolice investigating serious crimes or acts of terrorism in England and Wales have the right to demand circulation and internet-use records from public, academic, and government libraries, according to an attorney commissioned by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals. The CILIP Executive Board sought the opinion of barrister James Eadie in August on the advice of the association’s ethics panel, which was alerted to some recent cases involving police demands for patron information.Two statutes, the Police and Criminal Evidence Act of 1984 and the Terrorism Act of 2000, allow law enforcement to apply to a circuit judge for approval to obtain access to library records if a serious offense has been committed or if the material uncovered is likely to prove valuable in a terrorist investigation. The opinion, delivered September 27, also suggests that senior police officers and members of British security services have the authority to launch surveillance operations in libraries on their own, without court approval, if they believe national security is at risk or “for the purpose of preventing or detecting crime.” CILIP President Deborah Shorley said in an October 28 release, “As librarians and information professionals we must do all we can to help protect our society against terrorism. We need to be vigilant, but we must not overreact. We have a duty of client confidentiality and so we cannot collude with fishing expeditions by the authorities. We expect our members to respect the law of the land, and this advice tells us just where we stand.” Posted October 28, 2005. |
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