EU directive on data protection and its effect on law enforcement

Abstract

An analysis will be carried out of the European Parliament's and Council's 2016 Data Protection Directive (EU) 2016/680 on the protection of natural persons concerning the processing of personal data by competent authorities for the purpose of preventing, investigating, detecting, or prosecuting criminal offences or enforcing criminal penalties, and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Council Framework Decision 2008/977/JHA. Special focus will be given to Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of April 27, 2016, repealing Directive 95/46/E.C. (General Data Protection Regulation). Additionally, selected emerging issues arising from the EU's data protection reform, will be discussed, together with their impact on data processing in the law enforcement and criminal justice sectors. It will also analyse those aspects of the recently enacted Directive 2016/680 on data protection in the police and criminal justice sectors that will affect its effective and consistent implementation in practice. Finally, it will assess whether the principles outlined in COE. Recommendation R(87)15 governing the use of personal data in the police sector have been retained, amended, strengthened, weakened, or abandoned in Directive 2016/680. Specific issues arising from the Directive, not to mention the instrument of choice, a Directive distinct from the General Regulation, could be said to have been the 'writing on the wall,' as evidenced by the ongoing discussions in the Commission expert group, on Regulation 2016/679 and Directive 2016/680 on, for example, the complicated matter of delimitation. This study concludes that, the Directive on the processing of personal data by police and criminal justice authorities, is unquestionably a significant improvement and step forward in personal data protection in its field. However, it appears unlikely that the fragmented legal framework will be adequately revamped, and the intended high level of data protection standards consistent across European Union member states will be achieved. These preliminary findings notwithstanding, because the technique used in this study is a limited form of qualitative analysis, and therefore merely indicative, further research at a later stage possibly also employing quantitative techniques is strongly recommended. The findings of the limited qualitative study carried out in the course of this research were generally positive insofar as perceptions of the impact of the Directive are concerned. However, as stated previously, the number of police officers surveyed was small and thus, the results obtained can only be considered to be indicative. A more in-depth study possibly also deploying a quantitative approach is highly recommendable for a future next step/. A wide-ranging survey, including a more significant number of law enforcement personnel carried out after a period of at least five years from the coming into force of the Directive would possibly yield interesting results at a stage when the experience of the Directive would be more mature.