'Too expensive' to delete millions of police mugshots of innocent people, minister claims

[sl8]

Source: The Independent

Up to 20m facial images are retained - six years after High Court ruling that the practice is unlawful because of the 'risk of stigmatisation'

Rob Merrick Deputy Political Editor
9 hours ago

Millions of police mugshots of innocent people cannot be deleted because it would be too expensive, a government minister has claimed – despite a High Court ruling that the practice is unlawful.

The work would have to be “done manually” by local forces, making the costs “difficult to justify”, a committee of MPs investigating the controversy has been told.

The Home Office has also admitted it has no idea how many people have successfully asked for their mugshots to be deleted – amid suspicions that the figure is very low.

Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/police-mugshots-innocent-people-cant-delete-expensive-mp-committee-high-court-ruling-a8310896.html

[forgotmylogin]

1. Wouldn't it be more expensive to archive them in perpetuity?

I mean...I guess it's sort of like once the authorities get your fingerprints by any means (I had mine taken for a casino job background check) they have them on file... And the mugshot is likely permanently with any filed and archived records and documents...but just the plain image files probably serve no purpose.

[rock]

2. Nonsense

Delete ALL mugshots. How expensive is that?

[Nitram]

3. Bullshit!

How long does it take to sort files by date and delete every file that is older than the cutoff for keeping them? Ten minutes?

[coffeenap]

4. I bet a team of seniors would be happy to volunteer. nt