Statistics Federal Department of Justice and Police FDJP

The Swiss prosecution authorities and the Federal intelligence service (FIS) may order post and telecommunications surveillance measures for the purpose of investigating serious criminal offences based on the Swiss Criminal Procedure Code and the Federal Intelligence Service Act. The PTSS shall produce statistics on surveillance measures based on Art. 16 para. 1 let. k of the Federal Act on Post and Telecommunications Surveillance (SPTA).

Excluding antenna searches, the number of surveillance measures ordered has tended to decrease in recent years. In 2022, there was a slight increase in the number of cases, where they reached the level of 2019. For antenna searches, twice as many cells have been searched for compared to last year, although the number of cases (27) has remained unchanged. The reason for this doubling could be an increase in the number of mobile phone antennas present in the affected area.

The Articles 269bis and 269ter of the Swiss Criminal Procedure Code allow the use of special technical devices (IMSI catchers) and computer software (govware) for telecommunications surveillance. In 2022, 11 operations used this special computer software (11 in the previous year). The number of operations using special technical devices (IMSI-Catcher) amounts to 112 compared to 112 in the previous year.

Note: In connection with the revision of the APTS (march 18 2016), the PTSS introduced a more detailed method for counting statistical data (for more information on the new counting method, please refer to this press release). For this reason, a comparison of recent years is only possible to a certain extent. Furthermore the numbers presented by FIS and those by the PTSS are not comparable due to a different counting method.