The Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) says this is done where needed to mitigate risk, and the data is not subsequently stored.

ERR spoke with a protester who had been near Tallinn's Kadriorg Palace last August, when Israeli President Isaac Herzog was on an official visit to Estonia. The protester said they were asked for their documents.

"After the demonstration ended, my companion and I were walking past the presidential palace when someone shouted to us from the street: 'Stop, Police.'" the protester explained. They said the plainclothes officers then asked to see their ID documents and photographed their ID cards. While the officers also presented their own official ID, they did not specify why they wanted to photograph the protester's documents. This is reportedly not an isolated case.

The behavior of law enforcement has raised questions: notably, can exercising the constitutional right to protest result in being entered into some kind of database of "suspicious persons"? And why are protesters being checked in this way, even when they have not committed any offense?

Kalmer Filatov, development expert at the PPA's preparedness and response bureau, told ERR that the authority may check a person's documents, questioning them if it is necessary for threat prevention, in determining or eliminating a threat, or in mitigating public order disturbances.

"This rule applies everywhere in the same way, and a public assembly is not an exception in this respect. In these cases, the PPA also checks a person's data in the database. In certain situations, for example during a foot patrol, for the sake of accuracy and speed we use a solution where an officer takes a photo of the document and forwards it to make a database query," Filatov said.

According to Filatov, without this, the officer would have to read the person's details aloud over the radio, which takes time and may make that information public to bystanders who may overhear the conversation.

PPA: We do not collect data.

Filatov said that the public have the right to review any data the PPA may collect about them and any associated actions. A request for freedom of information must be filed with the PPA to do so, she added.

"The purpose of taking a photo is not to collect data or record participants, but to ensure the accuracy of the data. All queries made in police databases must be justified and are logged," Filatov added.

Filatov also noted that the PPA is not, as a rule, present at all public assemblies. Ensuring an event's security is ultimately the organizer's responsibility, she added.

"The PPA responds to demonstrations if we receive a report of a threat or an offense. As a preventive measure, the police are generally present at demonstrations which have a very large number of participants or in cases of heightened risk, for example if someone plans a so-called counter-demonstration nearby, where there may be a risk to public order," Filatov said.

Both apparent pro-Palestine and pro-Israel supporters appeared in media photos of the Kadriorg event last autumn.

Filatov also said that the same rights and obligations apply to a plainclothes officer as to a uniformed one.

"Plainclothes officers are generally deployed, for example, to ensure security during high-level state visits, as well as at demonstrations where disturbances of public order may occur," she went on.

PPA: Photos must be deleted

The PPA said photos taken of documents are not stored, while any photos taken must be deleted from the officer's phone at the end of a shift. The authority says it does not have databases that store data on people attending demonstrations.

The PPA also says it does not use facial recognition tech.

However, there have been situations where an officer has taken a photo at a demonstration of an individual, placards, symbols, or similar items on display. The PPA says it may do this pre-emptively as well.

"The photo is taken to document and assess the situation. If it turns out that there has been a violation, the photo can be admitted as evidence and kept with the case materials. If there was no violation, the police do not retain the photo," Leana Loide, the PPA's head of communications, said.

ISS: We generally do not request documents at demos

An Internal Security Service (ISS) spokesperson told ERR that while the authority has the legal right to do so, it generally does not demand to see documents at demonstrations.

"To perform its duties, the ISS has the right to use special state supervision measures provided for by law, including identifying a person and/or questioning them and requesting documents. However, as a rule, the ISS does not ask people at demonstrations to present identity documents; this task is handled by the PPA," said Marta Tuul, spokesperson for the ISS, known in Estonian by the acronym Kapo.

Data protection concerns in Estonia have been brought up in recent months, most notably with regard to speed cameras.

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