Fighting crimes as the statutory task of Internal Security Office. Present state and the de lege ferenda demands

Abstract

Special services to fight crimes conduct operational-detecting activities. However, none of legal acts states a complete list of operational powers of secret services. In connection with the above, the officers often take operational actions which are not regulated by legal provisions. These are activities taking the shape of measures, methods or forms, which are not regulated in acts but in classified orders issued by the chiefs of particular secret services.
In that situation the list of operational powers is open, which may cause some significant problems and rise constitutional concerns at a stage of application of the provisions of law. The problem is that the State is allowed to restrict freedom and human rights only under an act. Under no circumstances such a basis can be secret orders issued by the chiefs of secret services. The change of the actual state of affairs is possible by passing of an act governing operational-detecting activities in comprehensive way.
The purpose of this article is to bring closer problems which may face both the officers performing operational activities and state authorities determining legitimacy of these activities. Another aim is an attempt to identify the nature of statutory operational powers (operational tap, controlled transaction and supervised shipment) in such a manner as to raise concerns as minimal as possible.