No more listening devices, and pedophiles say thanks to Berlusconi

In the investigation field, the use of environmental or telephone eavesdropping has always been a vital tool to fight crime, especially in the most recent years with new technologies appearing on the marketplace, such as Skype, which allow free talking without fear of being intercepted by a listening devices on your phone line.

Eavesdropping the conversations of a suspect is absolutely vital, either to prove him guilty, or innocent.

A few months ago, a judge in Rome made a public statement and explained how, thanks to the new bill which is being passed by the Berlusconi government, and which is supposed to "improve" the usage of eavesdropping, a pedophile will easily be able to get away with his crimes. For example, a kid disappears, and eyewitnesses have noticed a convicted pedophile around his school in the days before his disappearance.

The police places a request to the judge, in order to obtain: a list of all calls made by the suspect; a list of all cellphone traffic routed through the cell that covers the school (to prove that the suspect was indeed there at the given time); a list of all traffic on the suspect's family's number, as well as the missing kid's home number; eavesdropping on the suspect, his family and the kid's family.

With the new law, this information would not be available, as it is only possible to eavesdrop a telephone if there are unequivocal clues that point to a suspect, and also, it would not be possible under any circumstance to eavesdrop a third person's telephone. Furthermore, eavesdropping is only limited to a maximum of two months (non renewable), which in many cases would not be enough to gather enough evidence or clues against the suspected person.

One of the explanations that the Berlusconi government has given (among others) is that planting listening devices is expensive. Well, he seems to forget that the cost of listening devices and their installation is certainly lower than the possible benefit for the country's finances generated by the discovery of financial frauds and tax evasions; furthermore, the citizens' security can not be bargained.

The truth is that, among those who get their conversations intercepted by the police, often there are politicians or their close friends, and that, to prevent any dirty business or fraud from being made public (and sanctioned) the government is keen on passing a bill that is not actually improving the eavesdropping procedures, but rather making them impossible. By doing this, such dirty business will not be exposed, let alone punished, and on the other hand, once again what is in danger is the security of the common citizen, who lives off a honest job and is understandably worried for his family and kids.

Thanks to such a bill, designed to save a lucky influential few, millions of ordinary people are at risk of having their sons or daughters kidnapped by a pedophile, while the police's hands are tied. Is this what you really want, Mr. Berlusconi?