Crime prevention by the police consists of two operational parts, i.e. intelligence gathering / management, and the concrete measures carried out against the problem. Legal issues pertain to both of them. On the intelligence side, Directive 2016/680 EU as transposed into national legal systems, features prominently. The present topic however, concerns the preventative measures, limited to measures online by the police in order to counter crime.
Firstly, by application of recognized strategies for crime prevention (individual- and local oriented, situational), possible preventative measures are identified. In a Norwegian context, the legal framework for the application of such measures is primarily the Police Act of 1995. The Act was not made with online issues in mind, neither has it been revised with a view to cover the Internet scenario. The question concerns the legal scope for police measures online according to this framework, as supplemented by fundamental human rights. A comprehensive strategy on crime prevention should cover criminal sanctions as well, in which case a broader legislative framework comes into play.
Could we for instance, envisage routine confiscation of domain names and web site addresses, similar to the manner in which the police routinely confiscates driver’s licenses in traffic cases?