‘Legislative amendment allows services such as Marechaussee and FIOD to listen in on communications’

An amendment to the law that has since been passed allows the Marechaussee and special investigative services, including the tax investigation service FIOD, to listen in on communications themselves and deploy infiltrators with the aim of combating organized crime.

De Volkskrant writes that the amendment to the law will come into effect in the summer and that it was adopted ‘without much publicity’. The newspaper does not mention which specific change it concerns, but it seems to concern the proposal ‘Implementation of special investigative powers’. Due to the amended law, special investigative services such as the FIOD and the Labor Inspectorate will soon be able to use special powers that until now were only reserved for the police. The police do need permission from a examining magistrate to be allowed to wiretap.

According to a spokesperson for the FIOD, the only thing that will change is that the service is now allowed to work independently when using these powers. For example, there was already ‘permanent and close’ cooperation with the police in this area. As a result of the change, the service should become more ‘decisive’ and there should no longer be a dependency relationship.

The FIOD states that expertise has now been built up. A spokesperson for the Social Affairs and Employment Inspectorate says that the service does not yet have expertise and that cooperation will be entered into with the police. Specialist staff would be needed to carry out the powers and the Labor Inspectorate would be too small for that kind of investment.

Vincent Böhre of Privacy First is critical of de Volkskrant. He states that it concerns a ‘drastic amendment of the law’ that infringes on the privacy of citizens. According to Böhre, there should have been more debate in parliament and in the media.