Gardaí may again issue photographs of people they wish to identify with public assistance, Commissioner Drew Harris has said in defence of the policy recently used during their investigation of the Dublin riots.
Mr Harris said the move, which led to the identification of 90 “persons of interest” from 99 images released in November, had proven successful.
“And we may need to use that again in terms of other serious disorder,” he said in an interview on RTE’s Crimecall programme on Monday.
His repeated defence of the policy follows reports the force did not consult the Data Protection Commission (DPC) beforehand.
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Organisations such as the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) have expressed concern about the approach.
However, Mr Harris listed a number of serious offences that he believed would warrant repeat use of the method by which investigators could quickly identify people with assistance from the public.
“Those who engage in disorder, destruction of property, the looting of premises; they can have no reasonable expectation of privacy,” he said.
“And we are following through with our legitimate inquiries and our lawful purpose of bringing those offenders to justice.”
The DPC has effectively given its approval to An Garda Síochána to release images of suspects in the future, subject to certain conditions. It said the November release was justified, given the “major” scale and nature of the inquiry into the riots.
Mr Harris said the release followed an investigative process and each of the images in question came from a CCTV trawl in the aftermath of the extensive public disorder in the capital.
“[But] if we thought the release of an image would then lead to a threat towards an individual then we’d have to give that very serious consideration.”
Separately, the Commissioner said there would be more “investigative actions” in the coming weeks in relation to the murder inquiry of schoolboy Kyran Durnin, and possibly further arrests.
Gardaí released a man without charge last week who had been arrested in connection with the investigation.
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