Retention of DNA profile in the police's convicted offenders register
Supreme Court judgment 9 December 2020, HR-2020-2372-A, (case no. 20-045136SIV-HRET), civil case, appeal against judgment.
A (Counsel Christoffer Adrian Falkeid) v. The State represented by the Ministry of Justice and Public Security (Counsel Knut-Fredrik Haug-Hustad)
Justices: Skoghøy, Bull, Arntzen, Bergh, Steinsvik
The DNA profile of a person who had been sentenced to 18 days of imprisonment and a fine for attempted driving with excess alcohol, had been retained in the police's convicted offenders register, see section 12 of the Police Databases Act. The Supreme Court found that the measure was compatible with Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) on the right to respect for private life. It was mentioned that retention in a case like this expressed a relatively low retention threshold. When this threshold was balanced against the length of the retention period – up to five years after the person's death – and the possibility of deletion based on a substantive proportionality assessment – see section 45-17 of the Police Register Regulations – the retention was not a disproportionate interference with private life and thus incompatible with Article 8 of the ECHR.