You can’t use breath testing to id meeting attendees

Newshub reports:

Police broke the law when they set up a breath-testing checkpoint and collected information to identify attendees of a euthanasia meeting, authorities have found.

After a pro-euthanasia group Exit International meeting in Lower Hutt in October 2016, police stopped vehicles at a nearby checkpoint to collect the names and addresses of attendees.

An investigation from the Office of Privacy Commissioner (OPC) found the collection of information at the checkpoint breached the privacy act, and an Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) report found the checkpoint was unlawful.

IPCA authority chair Judge Colin Doherty said the establishment of the checkpoint was “an illegitimate use of police power that unlawfully restricted the right of citizens to freedom of movement”.

Privacy Commissioner John Edwards said the police checkpoint “unlawfully and unfairly collected personal information, harming some of the people affected”.

This is no surprise. What were the Police thinking.