Right. When I try and figure out how to compare the FBI to british law enforcement I end up with &quot;MI5 smashed together with Special Branch plus SOCA plus a bunch of other specialist bits&quot; ... and I&#x27;m pretty sure if we&#x27;d done that it&#x27;d&#x27;ve been an unmitigated disaster just the same.<p>It was notable that there was a very brief &quot;scandal&quot; that MI5 had found evidence of child molestation but ignored it because they&#x27;d only found it via their ability to ignore due process in the name of national security and therefore since the information wasn&#x27;t a national security issue it was filed under &quot;not usable&quot;.<p>Cooler heads pointed out repeatedly that that was how it had to work to preserve due process, and it didn&#x27;t stay news for long; this was, to me, the correct outcome.<p>(of course GCHQ is a whole different kettle of fish)