The Hellenic Police Force (ELAS) keeps fingerprints of citizens for an excessively long time, beyond the proportionality and expediency of their collection, concluded the Ombudsman in February 2022.
Following a complaint from an aggrieved citizen, the independent authority investigated the issue, finding that ELAS had kept the individual’s fingerprints for more than 30 years. The police established a fingerprint record for this individual when his fingerprints were found at a crime scene. The then 15-year-old minor faced a criminal trial but was acquitted and was found to have had no involvement in the case, and not to have committed any criminal offence.
In a finding on 22 October 2019, the Ombudsman, citing the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on the protection of minors from any possible harm or stigmatisation due to the retention of their data following their acquittal of a criminal offence, had proposed the amendment of Presidential Decree (PD) 342/1977 (Government Gazette A 109/18.4.1977) and PD 245/1997 (Government Gazette A’ 180/15.9.1997), accordingly. These are two pieces of legislation which lay down the conditions and rules for the retention and destruction of fingerprints.
According to Article 3 of PD 245/1997, it is possible (but not necessary), on a case-by-case basis, to retain the data of persons acquitted by the courts until the legal certification of their death or after their 90th birthday.
The Ombudsman concluded that the failings of the legislation in this issue lie in the fact that it does not provide for the notification of the competent police directorate by the court in the case of the acquittal of the accused, with the consequence that the fingerprints taken for any specific case are often not destroyed for an extremely long period of time.
The independent authority therefore proposed the reform of Decree 245/1997, obliging the courts to notify the police forces when an individual is acquitted so that their recorded fingerprints may be destroyed within a reasonable period of time. The Ombudsman also suggested that shorter retention periods for fingerprinting data for minors should be legislated, and that ELAS records should specify when fingerprinting was carried out at a time when the person was a minor.
Despite a renewed request from the Ombudsman in July 2020, the Ministry of Citizen Protection did not respond to the independent authority’s conclusion. In fact, it seems that the administration did not take into account the recommendations of the Ombudsman at all, since the 2021 Presidential Decree (Government Gazette A’ 255/31.12.2021) defining administrative procedures in the Police Force did not deviate from past legislation regarding the long retention period of forensics data.
Where is the issue with the rule of law? In a state governed by the rule of law, the retention of citizens’ fingerprints and data should correspond to the proportionality and expediency of their collection. However, the Ombudsman’s conclusions in this case show that the ELAS, under Article 3 of PD 245/1997, retain fingerprints and data, even of minors, for excessively long periods, which is also incompatible with the case law of the ECtHR.
In a state governed by the rule of law, the retention of citizens’ fingerprints and data should correspond to the proportionality and expediency of their collection.
However, the Ombudsman’s conclusions in this case show that the ELAS, under Article 3 of PD 245/1997, retain fingerprints and data, even of minors, for excessively long periods, which is also incompatible with the case law of the ECtHR.
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