Big Data Data Mining by the Dutch Police: Criteria for a Future Method of Investigation

The term Big Data refers to the phenomenon of an ever larger and increasingly complex number of digital data and data files that keep growing in scope continuously and exponentially. It is a known fact that worldwide different intelligence agencies employ automated data analysis, known as data mining, on data and data files to understand Big Data. More and more also the Dutch police use automated data analysis of data and data files and real Big Data data mining as a method of investigation in criminal proceedings. Even though Big Data data mining can be a potentially useful and effective method of police investigation, there are some uneasy aspects associated with it. These aspects should be, but so far hardly have been, a topic of discussion in the Netherlands. In this article I will reach the conclusion that in the Netherlands, based on the worldwide discussion on mass surveillance and Big data data mining by the intelligence agencies, the time has come to also regulate Big Data data mining by the police. Regulation has to emerge through the democratic legislative process. I will formulate criteria or propositions for the implementation of this legislation in the Dutch Code of Criminal Procedure. These criteria may, in an international context, be useful for the broader debate about Big Data data mining by police agencies.