Cabinet endorses broad spying powers for police
With little fanfare, the Cabinet on Tuesday endorsed sweeping new powers for police to monitor mobilephone conversations and access mobile apps – but police promised that ordinary people would not be affected, because the authorities would only target criminals accused of grave offences.
The Cabinet on Tuesday endorsed an amendment of criminal laws that would affect investigations of suspects involved in terrorism, transnational crimes, security threats or crimes with a statute of limitations of more than 10 years.
The draft has to be passed by the National Legislative Assembly before it can go into effect.
Deputy police spokesman Pol Colonel Krissana Pattanacharoen said on Wednesday that police would have to submit evidence to their superiors and receive permission from a court before they would be allowed to eavesdrop on conversations.
The courts would set the conditions such as the duration and type of monitoring, the spokesman said.
He added that innocent people should not be worried about the amendment as it would only be applied to criminal suspects.
