Details of the illegal surveillance of over 100 people - including senior NSW police - under scrutiny in a NSW parliamentary inquiry should ring alarm bells on another front in the digital privacy wars.

As Deputy Police Commissioner Nick Kaldas described the "decade of angst" caused by the invasion of his privacy, and the bugging of his ex-wife and children's home, NSW Police were down in Canberra arguing to federal politicians that they should have open slather to invade the privacy of the public at large.

...Judges are rubber stamps when it comes to police seeking warrants for telephone intercepts in NSW. The NSW Civil Liberties Council has previously called for the introduction of the Queensland system to cut out rubber-stamping. A Queensland public interest monitor scrutinises each surveillance warrant and questions whether the police evidence justifies the privacy invasion of a "bug", and can argue this case before the judge.

Article: Police privacy worries should be shared by all

Source: Sydney Morning Herald, 8/2/2015