Western Australias police commissioner has defended the decision to access supposedly confidential data from a Covid-19 contact tracing app for the investigation into the assassination of former Rebels bikie boss Nick Martin.The state government introduced urgent legislation in parliament on Tuesday after it was revealed police had used information from the SafeWA check-in app during two serious criminal investigations.
Police Commissioner Chris Dawson emphatically said it was not a “mistake”, adding officers would continue to use every means available to fight crime.
“The police have only got information twice out of 240 million transactions, and they are exceptional circumstances, and it is lawful,” he told 6PR radio on Wednesday.
Mr Dawson said police were not just “fishing around”, adding they had a duty to investigate crimes.
“If any person is murdered … the police have a duty to collect the best possible evidence and put that before the court,” he said.
“Don’t expect me to do my job half baked. I expect my officers to do everything possible to bring a murderer to justice and to bring a person who stabs another to justice.
“I am not going to take half measures with that and I make no apology for it.”
When the contact tracing app was made compulsory in December last year, Premier Mark McGowan promised personal data would only be used by health authorities.
But Mr Dawson indicated there was a loophole in the fine print.
“The terms and conditions said it can be issued for a lawful reason,” he said.
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“I accept that people don’t always read the fine print on insurance polices and whatever.”
Premier Mark McGowan learnt about the police usage of the app data in April and asked Mr Dawson to put an end to it.
He told parliament that they had met “on a number of occasions” to discuss the matter.
“I requested that the police no longer do that, but the police commissioner advised me that his officers are exercising their rights under the law and are just doing their job. I accept that,” Mr McGowan said.
“That is the police commissioner’s point of view … I have no difficulty that police officers do their jobs. But our view is that the SafeWA app should be used only for contact tracing purposes.”
After Mr Dawson refused to budge on the issue, the state government moved to introduce the legislation.
“We then resolved to draft legislation in order to put it beyond doubt that the app could no longer be used for criminal investigations or whatever it might be,” the Premier said.
“The reason behind that is that we need to have public confidence in the use of the app.
“We do not want any concern by the public that the information might be accessed for other purposes.”
Martin was publicly assassinated by a suspected sniper at Kwinana Motorplex on December 12 in front of horrified children.
Police previously said they believed Martin was shot from about 300m away while attending the event with his wife Amanda.
Former Bandidos bikie member Ricky Chapman was also hurt, while a five-year-old boy suffered a minor injury from the shot.
A 34-year-old man, who cannot be named, has been charged with Martin’s murder.
The other police investigation where the SafeWA app data was accessed was a stabbing at an East Victoria Park cafe in February.