Prague, Sept 12 (CTK) – Czech police wiretapped 6,717 phone numbers in 2016, which is 201 fewer than in the preceding year, an analysis CTK has at its disposal says, adding that one third of the wiretappings aimed to help bust organised gangs.
The police most often wiretapped the communication of drug crime suspects, followed by persons suspected of violent crime in cases such as blackmails, robberies and murders, says the analysis to be submitted to the cabinet next week.
The police worked on 124,024 cases last year. They needed to apply wiretapping in 1,064 of them, which is 0.9 percent of all the cases.
Like in the past years, suspects were most often wiretapped by the National Drug Centre (NPC) last year, when it wiretapped 1,439 phone numbers and 697 persons.
The second largest wiretapper was the National Centre Against Organised Crime (NCOZ), which wiretapped 993 numbers and 770 persons.
The third largest were the Prague criminal police with 792 phone numbers and 450 persons.
The police can apply wiretappings only if the relevant proposal is made by a state attorney and approved by a court.
In the past 13 years, the number of police wiretappings was the highest – 9,610 – in 2004, followed by the years 2006 and 2014 with more than 7,500 wiretappings each.
Their number was the lowest in 2008 and 2009, under 5,000.
The analysis also focuses on the police shadowing of persons and items, which was applied in 4,919 cases last year, an increase by 443 compared with 2015.
Like wiretapping, shadowing was most often applied to help uncover drug crime and organised gangs, the analysis says.
