The National Police Agency ordered prefectural police forces across Japan to check whether they have run the same improper practice as Kanagawa, after a sergeant there carried expired driver's licences out of a station and lost them. Commissioner General Yoshinobu Kusunoki gave the instruction at a regular meeting of prefectural police chiefs in Tokyo on Thursday.
The case surfaced in August when a sergeant in the guard division at Hodogaya Police Station left a rucksack holding 31 expired licences at a train station. He had been handed the licences by the traffic division while posted to the guard division at Konan Police Station, according to the Asahi Shimbun.
The licences were being reused to obtain photographs of people under surveillance, described in the report as subjects of guard operations for whom the force gathers information.
Investigation under way
The National Police Agency has set up an investigation and guidance team and begun a nationwide survey of other prefectural forces, treating the reuse as a likely violation of the Act on the Protection of Personal Information.
Kusunoki told the meeting the practice "must never happen" and that the agency takes it very seriously. He said corrective measures and steps to prevent a repeat were needed.
“I want you to make staff under you aware once more of the importance of protecting personal information, and to ensure basic rules are followed.”Yoshinobu Kusunoki, Commissioner General, National Police Agency
Cyberattacks
Kusunoki also addressed a run of data leaks caused by cyberattacks, calling them a serious situation that threatens the safety and security of the public.
He said police would pursue investigations and work to establish what happened, and would strategically carry out "neutralization" measures — entering attackers' computers to stop them operating. Prefectural forces were asked to build systems for responding to data leaks and to warn businesses.