The National Commission for Information Technologies and Liberties (CNIL), France’s data protection watchdog, announced on Wednesday that it had “call to order” the ministries of the interior and justice for their “poor management of the criminal record processing file” (TAJ).
This file, central due to its importance in police activity and enormous due to its size, contains around 20 million people, contains information regarding victims of crimes and defendants in judicial proceedings. Accessible to police officers in the context of judicial investigations, it is also used for certain administrative investigations. Managed by the national police, it must be updated periodically by order of prosecutors or magistrates depending on the evolution of judicial cases.
Therein lies the problem, points out the CNIL. According to her, a lot of data. “incomplete” EITHER “incorrect” They remain on the docket, because courts do not transmit many legal decisions to the docket administrator, particularly decisions to dismiss the case or dismiss it without further action. Likewise, the release or acquittal of the people initially accused does not always appear there.
“Concrete and serious consequences”
«This absence can have concrete and serious consequences for people, in particular because it can influence the conclusion of administrative investigations prior to the exercise of a profession or the admission to sit for a competition for public service »continues the CNIL. Very sensitive information about people is recorded in the TAJ, such as “marital status, address, profession and photograph” reminds the CNIL. Under certain conditions, facial recognition can also be used from these photographs. The authority also highlights the poor communication with the victims or the accused, who are not always informed of the existence of this file, and notes difficulties in the right of access to this information by the interested parties.
The problem posed by the presence of erroneous or outdated files in this important and sensitive file is a very old one. It was already noted in 2011 in a parliamentary report on the STIC file, its predecessor. Seven years later, the problem has still not been resolved, two deputies noted when presenting their report on the police files.
At the request of Agence France-Presse, the Ministry of Justice explained that there were “on the one hand, greater communication with prosecutors to strengthen their action to update the registered data” AND “ Technical work was also carried out that allowed the automation of these transmissions, work that is currently in a testing period before its generalization.one of the suggestions made by the CNIL. The other concerns “the effectiveness of personal rights” that appear in the file to access your data or to have it rectified, “for example, establishing an effective and generalized procedure to all jurisdictions”. The concerned authorities have until October 31, 2026 to comply.
