WELLINGTON - Police say telephone record searches cost them between $500,000 and $750,000 a year.
National crime manager Detective Superintendent Bill Bishop said New Zealand was not an isolated example because there were similar charges in many countries.
The Weekend Herald revealed that Telecom charged police $40,000 to sift through records in a Wellington murder hunt. In Britain, Canada and parts of the United States such searches have to be made free of charge.
Mr Bishop said police had a long-standing relationship with Telecom regarding costs for record searches. Last year Vodafone, which had previously supplied such information without cost, also started charging. Saturn at present supplies the information free.
Police had lobbied the previous Government to change the law so the searches would be free but were declined, Mr Bishop said. The present Government was also examining the issue.
There was a high demand by police for telephone numbers and names associated with phone numbers, hence the high level of expenditure, he said.
"From time to time individual operations are very expensive ... but I have to say that both Telecom and Vodafone have been very, very good when it comes to major operations where life and limb have been involved, where they have modified their charges accordingly so we can get the information without crippling the financial arrangements we have in the police."
- NZPA
Big bill in police searches
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