"Police forces balk at tracking fees imposed by Rogers"

[The Bread Guy]

Nice revenue generation scheme they have going there ....

Police forces balk at tracking fees imposed by Rogers
RCMP paid more than $2 million to telecom firms in 2012-13

The RCMP and many other police forces are refusing to pay new fees imposed by Rogers Communications for helping track suspects through their mobile phones.

Police say the telecommunications firm is legally obligated to provide such court-ordered services and to cover the cost as part of its duty to society.

Rogers says while it picks up the tab for most judicially approved requests, in some cases it will charge a minimal fee.

The quietly simmering dispute underscores long-standing tensions over who should pay when police call on telephone and Internet providers to help investigate cases.

It began late last May when Rogers wrote to RCMP divisions and other police services across Canada to say it would usher in new fees to law enforcement on Aug. 1.

The fees applied to help in executing warrants for tracking customers' movements through cellphone data, and for production of affidavits certifying records in cases where testimony is required to explain the records in court ....

 

[krimynal]

this is plain b******* ..... it's sad to see company try to use every little option they have to make profit ....

 

[Tibbson]

As much as this infuriates me I prefer to think  (hope)it won't get much traction over time.  Telcom companies (in my experience mostly Telus and Rogers) have been the most problematic when it comes to actioning production orders and/or search warrants and they often choose to overlook the fact that they are being presented with court orders to provide the information.  Information that normally consists of nothing more then a computerized records search and a reprint of someone's monthly statement.  Of course there are sometimes deeper searches that are required but for the most part it's a pretty simple request.

If telcom companies like this are able to set the precedent then others will no doubt try and we will find that banks, private businesses and others want to charge whenever they are served a warrant or production order.  Then again, maybe the police can then start charging defence lawyers for the time and effort that goes into disclosure packages including all the photocopying, tape and CD duplication and report printing.  Lemme see Lawyer Smith....thats 4 bankers boxes of document disclosure at $650 per box, plus $15 a CD and $27.50 per interview DVD.

 

[cupper]

Only takes one perp walk of a Rodgers official being arrested for contempt of court or obstruction of justice charge to resolve this issue. :nod:

 

[JesseWZ]

Only takes one perp walk of a Rodgers official being arrested for contempt of court or obstruction of justice charge to resolve this issue. :nod:

I like the cut of your jib.

 

[Tibbson]

Only takes one perp walk of a Rodgers official being arrested for contempt of court or obstruction of justice charge to resolve this issue. :nod:

I'd love to be the one to lead that walk.  Sad fact is, the production order outlines that they must provide the data and of course they do but there is nothing stopping them from sending a bill either at the time of delivery of the data or after the fact and then chasing the department for payment.  It then gets to be a civil matter because they have satisfied the court order and there is no law or regulation against them billing for it all. 

I remember once a number of years ago I served a warrant on a storage company for access to someone's long term storage crates.  The company was ticked that they had to open the crates and pay their staff to be there while we executed the search warrant.  They ended up sending a bill to CMTT and fools that they were (IMHO), they paid it. 

For civilian departments, all it will mean is bigger tax bills to pay for the increased policing costs.