You're certainly on to something in so far as this is why it happened: in an environment where it's a regular occurrence that bystanders die in violent clashes

You're certainly on to something in so far as this is why it happened: in an environment where it's a regular occurrence that bystanders die in violent clashes between one side that exposes itself in uniform and another that disguises themselves as (and/or considers themselves) regular people, "some PII" seems to be a very low price to pay for untangling the bloody mess a little. But as evidenced here, that PII won't go away and the consequences can be just as bloody as what it helped preventing, or worse. This is not about brandishing haughty principles, this is about difficult decisions and learning in a maze of known und unknown unknowns. Expect mistakes to be made and try to find the right balance between fostering a blame culture where too much is swept under the rug to learn and a careless culture where too much is blanketly forgiven.