From the CBC: Police want 25-cent surcharge on phone bills to fund wiretaps

Last Updated Mon, 16 Aug 2004 11:02:29 EDT
OTTAWA – The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police wants every phone and internet customer in the country to pay a surcharge of 25 cents a month to help cover the cost of eavesdropping on criminals.

The money would boost police coffers in the face of an increasing number of expensive court-approved wiretaps on drug suspects, money launderers and potential terrorists.

Police are eager to use new technology to find and help convict wrongdoers, but they warn investigations will suffer if individual police forces are required to pay for telecommunications access and surveillance.

“This is a very, very serious issue for us. It has a potential for really paralyzing operations,” Supt. Tom Grue, a member of the association’s law amendments committee, told the Canadian Press.

Grue, of the Edmonton police force, compares the measure to the current 25-cent to 50-cent surcharge that supports the 911 emergency service.

But Bell Canada doesn’t think customers should have to pay for crime investigations in that manner. The country’s largest phone company wants to split the cost between the police and the service providers and leave average Canadians out of the equation.

“I don’t know how popular that’s going to be, something like that,” said spokeswoman Jacqueline Michelis. “Twenty-five cents is a really significant amount to add to everybody’s phone bill.”

She pointed out that Bell Canada has spent “millions of dollars” on new technology to improve the quality of wiretaps, in line with looming changes in federal legislation.

Michelis said Bell Canada isn’t looking for police forces to compensate it for that infrastructure investment, but should be able to charge agencies like the RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service for day-to-day services associated with phone-line monitoring.

Grue said police forces shouldn’t have to pay any of the cost.

“From our perspective, it’s a very slippery slope to start paying for the execution of search warrants or any kind of a court order,” he said.