Photo/Illutration Yasumasa Okuda speaks at a Jan. 18 gathering in Nagoya after the Nagoya District Court ordered the deletion of his fingerprint and DNA data from a database. (Haruka Ono)

NAGOYA—A court here ordered police to delete fingerprint, DNA and mug shot data of a man found innocent of a crime, an unprecedented ruling that could affect how police databases are managed, lawyers said.

Judge Osamu Nishimura of the Nagoya District Court ruled in favor of Yasumasa Okuda, 65, who filed the lawsuit demanding that Aichi prefectural police remove his information from its database.

“No indication was given regarding the need to continue storing the data,” Nishimura said in the Jan. 18 ruling.

That information was collected by prefectural police after Okuda was arrested in October 2016 on suspicion of assault.

Okuda was part of a group opposed to the construction of a high-rise condominium near his home in Nagoya’s Mizuho Ward. He was accused of pushing the supervisor of the construction site to the ground.

In February 2018, the Nagoya District Court found Okuda not guilty, and the verdict was later finalized.

But police held on to the data collected in the investigation.

In the Jan. 18 ruling, Nishimura pointed out that Article 13 of the Constitution guarantees individuals the right to freedom from having their fingerprints and DNA collected and used for no good reason.

The judge added that storing such information in a database could have a chilling effect on the activities of individuals.

Nishimura also said the provisions now used in operating such police databases were “weak.”

For example, there is no clear definition of how long the data can be stored, the judge said.

According to National Police Agency officials, the only provisions regarding data deletion are when the individual in question has died or if there is no longer a necessity for storing the data.

Nishimura said there is no need to continue storing data for individuals with finalized not-guilty verdicts unless a specific necessity was established, such as the likelihood of the person repeating or committing other offenses.

The district court, however, denied Okuda’s request for 11 million yen ($96,000) in compensation from the central and Aichi prefectural governments for what he described as an “unjust” arrest and indictment.

Despite that rejection, Okuda was relieved by the order to delete his data.

“It was a very good ruling because it allowed me to return to who I was before Oct. 7 (2016 when he was arrested),” he said at a news conference.

An official with the National Police Agency said the ruling would be carefully analyzed before deciding on what to do. There are currently no rules to delete the data of all those found not guilty, the official said, and such decisions are made on a case-by-case basis.

Experts said there was a need for clear rules regarding the storing of investigative data.

“It is desirable to eliminate the concerns of the public by establishing an easily understood system regarding the storing and usage of such data,” said Masahiro Tamura, a professor of police administrative law at Kyoto Sangyo University who previously served as head of the National Police Academy.

Tsutomu Shimizu, a lawyer, also said clear rules are needed regarding the operating of such databases because it is difficult for individuals who have been investigated to ask that their personal data be deleted.

He added that the latest ruling could provide the impetus for more appropriate management of information by the police.

(This article was compiled from reports by Hirohisa Yamashita, Senior Staff Writer Shimpachi Yoshida, Senior Staff Writer Tomoaki Ito and Haruka Ono.)

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