Police are seeking a law change to force cellphone companies to continue archiving text messages.
New Zealanders send 640 million texts a month and police fear they are being stripped of a vital crime-fighting tool, the Dominion Post reported on Saturday.
Text messages, which can only be accessed with a search warrant, can reveal who offenders meet, their movements, motives and even confessions. But Vodafone has stopped archiving texts and now Telecom has confirmed it will follow suit.
In the United States and Europe, the information is deemed so important for law enforcement and anti-terrorism measures that governments have passed laws compelling companies to keep records.
The Police Association president, Greg O'Connor, said the companies had a social responsibility to store cellphone records.
Seized cellphone communications were now crucial in nearly every major crime investigation, he said.
‘‘It's a very rare major inquiry that doesn't have some sort of texting contained as evidence.
‘‘Juries now want so much evidence to convict and so often the real or concrete evidence is provided by text.''
The conviction this month of Danie Moore for the murder of Tony Stanlake, whose body was found on Wellington's south coast, was bolstered by an extensive text trail documenting Moore's movements.
Mr O'Connor said the association had appealed to Police Minister Annette King to intervene.
‘‘We're getting real concerns coming to us from detectives around the country, extremely concerned that this is going to hamstring them. Criminals will be rubbing their hands with glee knowing that they can text with impunity.''
A spokesman for Mrs King said she was encouraging police to seek a solution with the phone companies.
‘‘If one can't be found voluntarily the Government will look at other measures, including legislation.''
Vodafone spokesman Paul Brislen said the firm gave police a year's warning before it stopped storing text content in March 2007.
