The number of requests by the Metropolitan Police to access personal communications records has risen, a Freedom of Information request has revealed. 

The London Evening Standard report: 

Scotland Yard’s yearly requests to access telephone and postal records have jumped to nearly 57,000 amid fears of a creeping “surveillance society” in Britain.

The Standard today reveals the growing number of requests by the Metropolitan police for surveillance of landlines, mobiles and letters.

The figures, obtained under Freedom of Information laws, sparked a fresh row over existing surveillance powers and moves to extend them.

You can read the full story here.

Matthew Burgess
http://www.mattburgess.co
I am a journalist and author. I am a journalist at the UK edition of WIRED magazine. In 2015, my first book Freedom of Information: A Practical Guide for UK Journalists, was published. My second book Reed Hastings: Building Netflix, was published in March 2020. I created FOI Directory in 2012 and have maintained it in my spare time ever since.