The police have found themselves under fire from a campaign against controversial powers allowing them to ask complainants to hand over mobile phones as evidence in rape investigations.
It is easy to see where the public’s discomfort lies. We build an ever-growing record of private conversations on smartphones which a generation ago would have gone unrecorded. The psychological barriers faced by victims in coming forward are also better understood. And in the face of perennially low rape convictions, the idea that a policy may compound a victim’s sense of violation or humiliation is deeply uncomfortable.
However, stories of rapists being granted full access rights to victims’ private lives have skewed the public debate. The requirement of the police to pursue an impartial and exhaustive investigation