NSW Police to Be Given Powers to Access and Download Phone Content on the Beat

The Minns government is set to introduce new laws into New South Wales parliament, so that the power NSW police has to require people to provide access to their digital devices, in order to a facilitate scan and download of their content on execution of a warrant and at threat of prison, is available during more routine arrests, roadside stops and other lawful detentions.

The October 2022-enacted digital evidence access order regime provides that police can obtain a DEAO when executing search and crime scene warrants, and if the subject of the order refuses this, then it’s an offence carrying up to 5 years prison time. And as the section containing this criminal offence notes, this measure overrides the common law right against self-incrimination.

However, once NSW police officers have obtained access to a suspect’s phone, they don’t simply scroll through the owner’s latest social media posts, as rather, they employ a device and software developed by Israeli digital forensics company Cellebrite that once connected to a civilian’s phone downloads its entire content, including all deleted messages and images.

As NSW Greens MLC Sue Higginson explained in state parliament in early June, this capability allows NSW police to access any message the subject have ever sent, as well as “any photo they have ever taken, their location at any moment, everything they have ever searched and biometric data about who they are”.

So, for several years now, NSW police has been able to apply this invasive technology during policing operations that were serious enough to require a warrant. Yet now, during a particularly volatile period in terms of crackdowns on protests and failing social cohesion, NSW Labor wants to provide DEAO use to cops out on the beat, as they’re reacting to random and unplanned circumstances.

Opening phones on the beat

The Minns government is currently overhauling organised crime laws in order to modernise them in line with emerging technologies. And it was as part of this process that it announced in an 18 June 2026 press release that it plans to expand the DEAO regime, so that officers can apply to for an order whilst in the field in circumstances where a device has been legitimately seized.

The language being used around the provision of this new policing power continues to focus on organised crime and gang-related matters, as it envisions devices lawfully being seized during arrests, roadside stops and other lawful detentions. But the shifting of this capability into the area of routine policing would suggest that it will become available beyond organised criminal matters.

NSW Labor outlines that the new law would enable officers to compel a suspect to provide access information, like a PIN or a face scan, and failure to comply or the provision of false information would see a person facing serious prison time, and it foresees this happening “in fast-moving organised crime investigations where delays can risk loss, encryption or remote wiping of data”.

As the regime stands, any NSW police officer or NSW Crime Commission executive officer can apply to either a judge or an authorised police officer for a DEAO, depending on the sort of warrant it will accompany. And the government’s stated that the policing power to execute search warrants actually presupposed a search of devices, but the issue had been they couldn’t get around the passwords.

In recognition of how serious this all-pervasive power to scan civilian mobile devices is, a summary offence was inserted into section 76AG of the Law Enforcement (Powers and Responsibilities) Act 2002 (NSW), which sees police officers who provide false information in order to obtain a DEAO facing up to 2 years prison time and/or a fine of $11,000.

All-pervasive downloads

Higginson raised the point that the NSW Police Force is employing Cellebrite software to scan phones on obtaining DEAOs in early June, as further organised crime and gang-related laws were being progressed, and these included an amendment to the DEAO regime, so that a person under 18 years of age must have a suitable person, or a parent or guardian, present when a DEAO is applied.

“Most people in NSW would be alarmed to know that the NSW police, using data from an Israeli corporation… can access any message they have ever sent, any photo they have ever taken, their location at any moment, everything they have ever searched and biometric data about who they are,” Higginson outlined.

The Greens MLC added, however, that this is precisely what occurs on a DEAO scan and this capability is being sought as another tool in the box for routine policing of the public.

Higginson explained that on applying a DEAO, NSW police officers then use Cellebrite universal forensics extraction devices to facilitate the downloading of content. She underscored that this includes messages from encrypted apps, like WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram, along with search history, health data, call logs, contacts and the UFED also extracts metadata.

The NSW Greens justice spokesperson added that Cellebrite is involved in Israel’s “genocidal military operations” and most of its employees are from elite Israeli spying agency Unit 8200, while Cellebrite tech is employed right across the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. And not only does NSW police have a contract with them, but multiple Australian federal and state government agencies do.

Free-for-all device scanning

Criminal defence lawyer Nick Hanna has suggested that NSW police officers have the attitude that whatever mobile device they can gain access to warrants a Cellebrite scan. And Higginson noted that Hanna had reported that a NSW police officer had provided testimony during cross-examination regarding how she downloads about 20 mobile devices a week.

Higginson added that in light of this testimony, it “can be assumed that police across the 400 police stations in NSW are using Israeli surveillance technology to download tens of thousands of phones every single year”. The MLC further warned that it’s likely not only suspects whose phones are being invaded by law enforcement, but it is probably the devices belonging to victims as well.

Such data sticks around too, the Greens member further cautioned. All of the data that NSW police does obtain from a scan is stored indefinitely and can be used again, and she added that this is what occurred in respect of the Brittanny Higgins sexual assault case, when data downloaded was maintained and then “later used in defamation proceedings brought against her by her perpetrator”.

Indeed, the Minns government seeks to make this capability an everyday policing tool, while, Higginson stresses that “there are no reporting requirements for any government agency on Cellebrite use” and neither are there any “known policies or guidelines governing how downloaded data is stored, used or shared”, or any requirement to destroy data after matters have been finalised.