Law enforcement management necessitates adoption and reliance on advanced communication surveillance measures amongst people, encompassing lawful surveillance and interception of all communication system across email, phone and electronic media. It allows agencies to get an access to diverse private communication.

Lawful interception enables lawful access to diverse and elaborate communication history either between private parties and individuals as well as across enterprises, accumulated by private service providers and later handed over to investigation teams. Rising incidences of crime and unlawful practices globally suffice adoption and growth of lawful interception activities to prevent accelerating crime. As federal governments worldwide pass interception laws, law interception market is anticipated to brace multilayered growth in the near future.

Tracking down miscreants is a challenging task and one of the most plausible means to trace them is through communication history. Needless to say, internet service providers as well as telecom companies routinely exercise lawful interception methods to retain complete communication history, thus enabling precise law enforcement. However, on the back of stringent right to privacy norms, lawful interception is possible only after appropriate warrant is issued.

With forthcoming 5G network technology lawful interception is likely to witness dynamic changes besides witnessing potential challenges. Some of the factors that need quick attention during this imminent transition to 5G network include advanced monitoring and surveillance techniques that are competent enough to offset challenges. As high-speed internet services are likely to become commonplace, regular activities of data collection, storage, processing, analysis and decoding of intercepted data need mindful approach. Need for 5G compliant monitoring and surveillance systems are absolutely mandatory to enable hassle free lawful interception in the age of 5G data transformation. New age communication devices such as mobile phones carry out interception activities with precision. Lawful interception activities via mobile phones is rigorously carried out by law enforcement bodies such as military, defense and government institutions. With 5G connectivity in place and soaring density of connected devices, data volume will grow exorbitantly, thus posing substantial threat to accurate monitoring of information via multiple devices.

International institutions such as European Union Counter Terrorism Coordinator (EU CTC) updates about the ensuing challenges in lawful interception with the imminent transition to 5G networks. The concept was discussed at JHA Council in 2019 and the risks involved pertaining to unbiased judiciary administration were also discussed. With 5G in place, telecommunication landscape as a whole is anticipated to witness dynamic alterations, more specifically with the inclusion of smart cities, telemedicine, autonomous driving and heighted cybersecurity risks. In a recent development lately, the European Commission is touted to have collaborated with EU states and Europol to brainstorm on finding appropriate means to enable seamless lawful interception in 5G networks. Developments as such are likely to favor lawful enforcement in the near future when technology becomes more sophisticated.