Gardaí Are Notifying People About Their Big ‘Snooping’ Operations In Dublin

The Times (subscription needed) is reporting that Gardaí have announced that the number of applications to track or bug suspects is rising in the capital.

They were allowed to use technology to ‘snoop’ on 156 suspects who were under surveillance from July 2016-2017.

The jump has been largely down to big operations against, and action being taken towards, organised gangs.

The legislation allows authorities to plant equipment and tracking devices as part of security operations.

The time limit is four months for tracking devices and the legislation is used to detect and combat serious criminal and terrorist activity.

“I am satisfied that significant intelligence has been gathered by means of the act which has either prevented serious crime or assisted in bringing successful prosecutions against the perpetrators of crime,” Justice McGovern said.

“I am also satisfied that without the powers given under the act that a significant amount of criminal activity could not be detected.”

Only five applications for use of tracking devices were refused by judges last year, all of which had “very good reasons” to be turned down.

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