The processing of personal data collected by the Executive Police during the course of criminal investigation with particular reference to recommendation No. (87) 15 of the Committee of Ministers

Abstract

The right of privacy is a fundamental human right. The latter is entrenched within many legal texts such as the European Convention of Human Rights Article 8 and also enshrined within the Maltese Constitution Article 32. Unquestionably, the police force is one of the strategic organs of the state under whose control falls such sensitive data. It is crucial for the police to have complex information about individuals to ensure competence in countering crime. This helps to properly safeguard the security and defence system of the state. However, there is the need to strike a balance in recognising the interests of society. On the one hand consideration must be given to the prevention and suppression of criminal offences and the effective maintenance of public order. At the other end of the spectrum, the interests of the individual and his right to privacy must be safeguarded. Thus on the 1 i 11 of September 1987, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe released Recommendation No. R(87) 15 "Regulating the use of' personal data in the Police Sector. " The objective of this thesis is to focus on the processing of personal data. Firstly the thesis is going to focus how this recommendation seeped through the Europol convention on data protection, and what impact it left on the Maltese legislation concerning data protection. This thesis is also going to focus on the collection of data. When the police can collect data from an individual and how it is collected. Nevertheless the individual still must have those adequate safeguards over the data collected. Once the police have collected this data they, may keep it for the necessary period and there also should be periodic reviews to check if such data is still necessary or not. Another point of discussion is, whether or not the police can retain data of acquitted persons, and if they can disclose information of arrested persons.