The Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Commission (HRADC) has clarified that Police are only entitled to finger print and photograph a person who has been charged with an offence which is punishable by imprisonment.
Commission chair, Pravesh Sharma said Section 18(1) of the Police Act 1965 states:“Any Police officer may cause to be taken, for use and record in the registry of the force, photographs, descriptions, measurements, fingerprints, palm-prints and footprints of any person in lawful custody for any offence punishable by imprisonment, whether such person has been convicted of such offence or not.”
This means that if a person is charged with an offence which is not punishable by imprisonment, then the Police cannot finger print or photograph that person.
Sharma said in the event a person who was charged by the Police for an offence punishable by imprisonment is acquitted of that charge, then the prints and photographs which were taken by the Police must be destroyed since section 18(2) of the Police Act 1965 states: “On the acquittal of any person whose photographs, description, measurements, fingerprints, palm-prints or footprints have been taken under the provisions of this section, such photographs, description, measurements, fingerprints, palm-prints and footprints shall be destroyed.”
