NSW Police officers have been banned from using social media and encrypted messaging apps on their work phones due to concerns about data retention.
The NSW Police Force issued new guidance this week banning the use of social media and encrypted messaging apps such as WhatsApp on any work-issued devices.
The move follows a report into a police officer’s car crash in 2023, which revealed police officers were using apps which automatically deleted messages and that this may not comply with record-keeping laws.
The ban will be implemented using new security software on NSW Police Force devices.
“With this software installed, social media and other personal apps will not work or be downloadable to NSW Police Force-issued devices,” a NSW Police Force spokesperson said.
The move will impact about 17,000 police officers, who have now been ordered to remove all social media and messaging apps from their work phones.
‘Another blow’
The move by the NSW Police Force has already been criticised by the state’s Opposition police spokesperson Paul Toole, who said it was “another blow to make a difficult job even harder”.
“We need to be backing our police for the job they do, not impeding on their communication with fellow officers and avenues of tracing criminals through social media,” Toole said.
“Banning them from using certain apps means many will just find another way to do so, including resorting to carrying two or more devices.”
The ban originates from an investigation, dubbed Operation Harrisdale, into a crash involving an unmarked police car in Sydney’s NorthConnex tunnel in May 2023.
The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission’s report raised concerns about the “practice of NSW Police Force officers automatically deleting work-related electronic messages and whether this was consistent with statutory regimes dealing with record retention”.
The Commission recommended that the NSW Police Commissioner “issue guidance to her officers on the use of encrypted applications and the deletion of messages from police-issued phones”.
NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb subsequently referred these concerns to the police’s public affairs branch and has now acted on the recommendation.
One of the encrypted messaging apps now banned on NSW police officer phones is Telegram, which announced last month it would be better complying with requests from authorities and providing information under “valid requests”.
This marked a significant shift for the controversial app, which had a reputation for shirking authorities and refusing to hand over any information on its users.
The move came after Telegram’s founder and CEO Pavel Durov was arrested in Paris in August and later charged with complicity relating to crimes perpetuated through the app, including the distribution of child abuse material and hacking software.
