On 22 December 2020, the Romanian DPA announced two new sanctions imposed on public authorities in the law enforcement sector for failure to comply with the lawfulness, fairness, and transparency principle in relation to the processing of personal data by using portable audio-video surveillance systems of the “Body-Worn Camera” and “Badge” types.
The investigations were launched following the receipt of a complaint regarding the violation of data protection legislation and concluded that neither the 4th District of Bucharest General Directorate of Local Police nor the Cluj-Napoca General Directorate of Local Police could prove compliance with Article 6 (1) of the GDPR regarding the lawfulness of the processing performed through the said portable audio-video surveillance systems, which were used by local police officers to record certain categories of interventions and actions during the exercise of their duties. In addition, the Romanian DPA found that there are no legal provisions governing the use of portable audio-video surveillance systems in the activity of local police officers.
Thus, each of the said public authorities was sanctioned with a warning, accompanied by a corrective measure, ordered by the remediation plan, in order to ensure the processing of data performed by using such portable audio-video surveillance systems complies with the provisions of Article 5 and Article 6 of the GDPR.
