Police illegally provided info to developer on citizens opposed to wind energy development 

A district court ruled on Feb. 21 that prefectural police broke the law by providing collected intelligence to a renewable energy firm on the activities of citizens opposed to a wind farm development.

A presiding judge of the Gifu District Court ordered the Gifu prefectural government to pay a total of 2.2 million yen ($19,000) to the four plaintiffs.

“I cannot help but say that how (the police officers) actively, intentionally and continuously provided their personal information (to the company) was malicious,” he said.

The four residents of Ogaki city in Gifu Prefecture had sought redress through the courts, maintaining that police officers working at the prefectural police’s Ogaki station had collected personal information about them and unlawfully provided it to a renewable energy company in connection with a plan to construct wind farms in the city.

According to the plaintiffs, this is the first time that a Japanese court has ruled that the provision of personal information to a third party by a police force as part of its routine duties was illegal.

“We would like to deal with the ruling sincerely,” the prefectural police said. “We will decide our next move after considering the ruling.”

According to the ruling, from August 2013 to June 2014, three police officers working in the Ogaki Police Station’s security section met and exchanged information four times with employees of a company called C-Tech. The C-Tech employees kept minutes of those meetings.

The firm is a subsidiary of Chubu Electric Power Co. and was planning to construct wind farms in Ogaki. The police officers provided information on the plaintiffs, such as their names, educational backgrounds, experience in civic activism and medical history.

The plaintiffs had held study sessions among themselves to learn about wind power generation.

“The information on their activities opposing the construction of the wind farms, or other past civic activism they had taken part in, is information on their thoughts and beliefs, which seriously needs to be protected, among all personal information,” the ruling said.

In weighing whether the police officers had justifiable reasons to give the information to C-Tech, the ruling considered factors such as for what purposes the information was provided, whether there was a need to provide the information, how it was given and whether it should have been confidential.

The ruling points out that the plaintiffs had only held study sessions.

“Threats to the public safety or order had not materialized,” it said.

It concluded that the police officers were in breach of the State Redress Law, saying that there was no need to provide the information to the company and that its provision was malicious.

Update, September 19, 2024:

Last week, the Nagoya High Court ruled that the police actions violated constitutional rights such as privacy and the freedom of assembly and association.

In addition to acknowledging the illegality of the police act of supplying personal information to the firm, as did the district court, the high court also decided that the collection and retention of information for an “unjustifiable purpose” were deemed illegal.

The court ordered the prefectural police department to delete the data and pay the plaintiffs 4.4 million yen ($30,600) in compensation, as they demanded. It marked a complete legal defeat for the prefectural police.