Were the Met Police regularly hacking communications by using a suitable interpretation of RIPA?

Image via WikipediaI found this interesting article from The Spectator's Jonathan Jones.

I particularly liked the first two comments from reader's feedback.

Were the police hacking phones too?

I suppose the key questions are:

• What have the Met Police been doing in our name?
• Who has or should have been supervising their activities?
• Should RIPA be reviewed?

I find myself agreeing with the article's conclusion that this story has quite a long way to run.

Related articles

• Guardian: Number of possible phone hacking victims close to 5,800, say police (blogs.journalism.co.uk)
• London's Met Police uses 'blanket tracking system' to intercept, remotely shut down mobile phones (zdnet.com)