CANBERRA, Australia (AP) 鈥� Biker boss Nick Martin鈥檚 murder at a speedway in Perth, Australia, left police a trove of evidence that led them to the culprit: a thrill-seeker turned gun-for-hire. But they wanted more.
The coronavirus pandemic provided it in the form of an electronic dragnet: QR code check-in data from contact tracing apps of 2,439 fans who attended the December 2020 race. A government order requiring people to provide contact tracing information in case of a COVID-19 outbreak meant that anyone who checked in at the raceway that day left their name, phone number and arrival time through the SafeWA COVID-19 app or on paper. Police issued an 鈥渙rder to produce鈥� the information to the state Health Department two days after Martin was shot and killed.
Police accessed the data despite Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan鈥檚 promise that the data would only be accessible to contact tracing personnel.
鈥淭hey鈥檝e breached the trust of the West Australian public and they have let everybody down,鈥� Mia Davies, leader of the state鈥檚 opposition National Party, said in a written statement blaming the government for not legislating safeguards from the start.
Western Australia police didn鈥檛 respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.
Unable to negotiate a solution with police, McGowan鈥檚 government ultimately passed laws in June 2021 that banned law enforcement from accessing such QR data. Multiple other Australian states and territories also introduced laws to prevent police from accessing contact tracing data.
Some critics blame Australia鈥檚 lacking privacy regulations for the way police have leveraged information collected for a health emergency. Comparable countries 鈥� including New Zealand and the United Kingdom 鈥� have QR check-ins that don鈥檛 collect and house information about individual whereabouts in central databases, said cryptographer Vanessa Teague, an Australian National University privacy researcher.
An alternative is to store contact tracing data on people鈥檚 individual phones, so the app user鈥檚 information is only accessed when they have been in close contact with someone who tests positive for COVID-19.
Michelle Falstein, assistant secretary of the New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties, said Australia鈥檚 1988 Privacy Act was enacted before the internet was widely used and long before virtually every adult citizen and teenager had a smart phone.
鈥淧rivacy by design is something that legislators or certainly government doesn鈥檛 think about in Australia,鈥� Falstein said.
In Perth, the QR check-in data tapped by police hasn鈥檛 been shown in court to have anything to do with arresting Nick Martin鈥檚 killer, who has since pleaded guilty. Identified in court documents only by the initials B.L.J., the shooter crawled in through a hole in the fence and fled the same way, presumably avoiding the QR check-in. His name is being withheld by authorities because he鈥檚 a cooperating witness against the man who he alleges hired him for the hit.
Ordinary cell phone data placed B.L.J. at the spot ballistic experts calculated the bullet was fired from. CCTV showed him at the track earlier that day wearing Fila running shoes similar to those that left footprints at the shooter鈥檚 vantage point.
More evidence fell into police hands when B.L.J. took his rifle to a gunsmith to replace the barrel. The tradesman recorded the alteration in a firearms database, which quickly came to detectives鈥� attention. Police retrieved the original barrel from the gunsmith and ballistics proved it fired the shot that killed Martin.
B.L.J.鈥檚 girlfriend also told police he admitted committing the murder and he has since pleaded guilty.
___
Contact AP鈥檚 global investigative team at [email protected] or https://www.ap.org/tips/
Rod Mcguirk, The Associated Press
