the “T” branch and operational technology (pion “T”, technika operacyjna)

SB units which, at the request of the operational branches, installed, operated and removed the means of operational technology: room and telephone bugging, photographic surveillance and secret searches.

According to the glossary of the IPN Archival Inventory, the “T” branch was made up of the Technology Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the “T” divisions of the SB's regional units (the Provincial Headquarters of the Citizens' Militia, KWMO, and from 1983 the Provincial Offices of Internal Affairs, WUSW) and the “T” sections of the operational security divisions. The means of operational technology were room bugging (PP), telephone tapping (PT) and telegraph interception (PTG), photographically documented covert observation (PDF) and the secret search (TP), and in practice also external bugging (PEZEW). A secret search meant covertly entering someone else's premises without the occupant's knowledge.¹

Material obtained by these means was treated like agent material: according to the IPN, it could not be used in court proceedings nor could its source be disclosed (1979 instruction). A separate object file was opened for each installation, and the branch's documents – notes, transcripts of intercepts, recordings, photographs and records of secret searches – were marked with the letter “T”.¹

By way of comparison: today, covert recording of conversations, images or correspondence by the ABW is operational control, which under Article 27 of the Act on the Internal Security Agency and the Foreign Intelligence Agency is ordered by a decision of the Regional Court in Warsaw, on an application by the Head of the ABW made with the consent of the National Prosecutor.²