The motel business owners complained to the Authority after learning that Police had disclosed personal information, including photographs taken during a Police search at their motel, to their landlord in December 2016. The search had led to the arrests of one of the motel business owners and another person for drug-related offending. The owners were subsequently told in early 2017 that their lease would be cancelled. They sold their business at a substantial loss.
The Authority determined that parts of the Police search were unlawful, as they did not have reasonable grounds to suspect there was evidential material in some areas where they searched.
Following the search, a Police officer called and emailed the landlord, and sent photographs taken during the search of private areas of the motel. The photographs wrongly implied that public areas of the motel complex were being kept in poor condition. The officer then disclosed further personal information, with the intention of convincing the landlord to remove the motel business owners from their tenancy.
The Authority found that most of these disclosures were unjustified. The Authority also found that the Police officer who was responsible for the wrongful release of personal information intentionally misled one of the complainants about who released the information, and subsequently lied to fellow officers during the Police investigation into the matter.
"While Police were justified in addressing what they perceived to be a problem in the community, the actions they took were an abuse of Police power that had significant consequences for the individuals involved", said the Chair of the Authority, Judge Doherty.
The Authority consulted with the Privacy Commissioner, John Edwards, during its investigation. On the basis of the facts outlined in the Authority's report, Mr Edwards agreed with the Authority that the Police had made unjustified disclosures of personal information and had failed to consider the privacy principles in the Privacy Act and the Official Information Act.
"The officer primarily responsible for the unlawful release of personal information had received little training in this area. It is unsatisfactory that an officer should be employed in the intelligence area of policing without such training", said Judge Doherty.