That is part of what I meant with "Better for the cops". If the cops routinely log everything, this shields them from orders of this kind. Because those would also get logged. The idea being that the system is always on during working hours.

This only holds if (a) all or most communications are intercepted with high fidelity, (b) all or most intercepted communications are routinely investigated by independent third parties and (c) bosses are prosecuted for giving illegal orders.

If a significant fraction of communications are unmonitored, either because they are not intercepted or because it requires an active complaint before the records are accessed, it just creates an incentive to hush up the communications. And if cops cannot trust that a boss who gives an illegal order will reliably go down in flames upon exposure, they have an incentive to collaborate.

And since the boss is frequently only one or two handshakes from the Minister of Justice, and since the Minister of Justice is accountable only to a parliamentary majority, not to the rule of law, the officer cannot count on this happening.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.